News / Presidential elections 2025 - the race has commenced!!! [665]


It shouldn't be. The Polish president is directly elected by the people and has a stronger position according to the constitution.

Although that also leaves more opportunities for the office to be exploited in the interests of the president's party, which in return can lead to a deadlock.

I generally like the Polish solution more because it gives the presidential office more of a purpose and legitimacy. But what happens if you end up with a president who is fundamentally opposed to anything the government wants to do?

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


I am just correcting false claims that you have made.


So fake news then. You are arguing like most voters of the AfD do. When challenged with facts, they'll just ignore them.


Now imagine how well the UK would be doing now if it hadn't commited the folly of Brexit.It wasn't the EU's fault that the German econony got dependent on Russian gas and the Chinese market.


Or makes it even more vulnerable to it. It is possible for a party in the UK to gain a majority in the elections despite receiving less than 40% of the votes. Sure this can be somewhat alleviated by all other parties uniting agains the Reform candidate, but that is not a long-term solution. And once those alliances break,FPTP means that the extremist party will find it even easier to gain and maintain power. Farage and his party were able to blackmail the Tories into this disastrous Brexit course precisely because losing even some votes to them would have allowed Labour to gain their seats.

FPTP is really nothing to brag about. It is an outdated system that for good reasons has not been adopted by any country that has undergone a democratic transformation in the last few decades. If we had FPTP, there would be already AfD governments in several East German states.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


London.gov.uk is a newspaper?


Stunted economic growth, more red tape while trading with many of the UK's biggest trading partners are supposed to be no drawbacks?

Brexit red tape on British businesses has caused goods trade between the UK and EU to slump and the problem is getting worse, a study has warned.

google.com/amp/s/bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd988p00z1no.amp

This is something even Nigel Farage has admitted to

Nigel Farage on Brexit: Red tape for UK businesses has got worse since UK quit the European Union

Of course he denied that would happen during the Brexit vampaign...

This isn't rocket science. Putting trade barriers and red tape (which is what Brexit means) on your closest trading partners was never going to be good for the economy. Trump is now finding that out for himself, and he has the negotiating leverage of a superpower on his side.

Not to mention other consequences.

Universities across the UK struggle since Brexit

kentandsurreybylines.co.uk/politics/brexit/universities-across-the-uk-struggle-since-brexit/


140bn poorer to be exact.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


I can accept anything if I see evidence that it is true.

The sources I provided you with clearly state the opposite. And they are not from the EU but the UK.


British people are poorer and lost jobs and other opportunities due to Brexit. As such they suffering the consequences of Brexit. You can be in denial about that, but it is what it is.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]

Well, we are talking about why people are voting for the AfD despite their obvious problems.

I pointed out that a similar movement is also gaining strength in the UK.

Some people just cling to their convictions and there is no arguing with them. That is the case in every country. I am sure there are specific examples of some buisness benefiting from Brexit, as shown in the link I provided, the overall picture is clearly negative. The City of London hasn't fared better either.

City of London chief says Brexit 'disaster' cost 40,000 finance jobs

uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/city-london-chief-says-brexit-082234030.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMFTaZr5njdVRWmfgSCAX3VeiL7jaQlgVNXH7dP5gEmtHyIpKD--Q5ghUuwk0cgNe_4KE3wtLdMLFjZCz6cX4OC5fdIlLpNZ6HABgDkvR_SEnKId9bhSASf8Y_OZ4nvYCHP1tq94WTD8z9eUgNpU96rB8a7c3VIUPzrrjt1K3ndV

And I dont even know where to begin with your weird ideas about nationalization. Trains are in many countries not in private hands and the EU has nonissue with it. So why bring it up? It wasn't the EU who forced the UK in all kinds of private-public partnerships and other weirdndeals.

Same thing trying to argue with AfD voters. You can bring up data and historical precent, but they don't care.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


The UK is today poorer than it would be if it had remained in the EU, with the Brexiteers promising the opposite. Even the city suffered unnecessary losses, If you want to pretend that Brexit was a success because it just diminished economic growth instead of outright crashing the economy, then so be it.

london.gov.uk/new-report-reveals-uk-economy-almost-ps140billion-smaller-because-brexit

It is obvious that it was a poor decision with predictably negative consequences for both sides. It weakened the UK and the EU, and left both sides more vulnerable to hostile actors, be it Trump or Putin. A tragic mistake we all have to live with.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Defending everything your country against all evidence (and indeed the views of most British people at this point) did on principle is kinda boring. It is ok to admit that Brexit was a stupid decision. Something every expert warned about, yet people voted for it. If the AfD ends up elected, nobody will be able to complain that nobody had warned about them.


I just didn't want to compare the consequences of Brexit with a war. As bad as it turned out to be, the suffering is quite on a different scale. Maybe Suez would have been a better comparison? Though again people died there as well.


Calling migrants "Messermänner" seems more than a strong opinion to me.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Yet they riding high in the polls and had a remarkeable success in the local elections.

google.com/amp/s/bbc.com/news/articles/cp8jdr6ylzjo.amp

It is evident that Farage is benefiting from the unpopularity of both Labour and the Tories, quite like in Germany with the SPD and CDU losing votes to the AfD.

The man has been caught in many scandals, looked poorly in many public debates, and is with Brexit responsible for the biggest disaster in British history since WWII. It should be plain to see that this man should never have political power. Yet more and more people are considering to vote for him.

That is how the AfD looks like to many.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Problaby something similar to what many Brits are saying now while watching the success of Farage and his Reform party. Disbelief that people are voting for those politicians, coupled with the realization that this party now becoming a possible factor in their home towns.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Doesn't really matter if those countries refuse to take them back in the first place.

"Hey Marocco, we'll dump some people who may or may not be your citizen in your desert". I am sure this would work well... .


What law?

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Not really a difference is there, when they arrive in Germany? Germany is not the first safe country on their route from either Ukraine or Syria.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


There is a need if the third country refuses to take him back. Can't punish people because countries refuse to fullfill their legal obligations.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Not like Bürgergeld is that generous to begin with. It is already as low as the law permits. And it only applys for recognised refugees.


That hasn't worked so far, has it? If someone enters via Poland and Poland refuses to take him back, he has to apply for asylum here.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Again, people who worked for decades and became unemployed would be receiving Arbeitslosengeld I instead.

Bürgergeld is something everyone receives as long as he has a legal reason to stay in Germany. Including Germans who have never worked in their life.

Btw. the conclusion from your link: "Benefits not a 'pull factor'"

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


It is also easy to disprove. Refugees don't automatically get Bürgergeld and for that matter, someone who has worked for decades won't be getting Bürgergeld but the more generous Arbeitslosengeld I for up to two years.


That is the consequence though.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Our constitution and laws place a lot of importance on human dignity. Which is why leaving people to starve -whether they are refugees or Germans unwilling to work - is not something German courts go along easily.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


There are legal limits to what extent those payments can be cut. Courts have made that abundantly clear.


Lets' be real here. Refugees have created a lot of expenses during the last few years, but the problems with e.g. our pension systems are a few magnitudes larger.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Many people are still reading the Bible and the Quran even though some of there verses were used to justify violence and punishments we today find wrong.

Like executing supposed practitioners of magic.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]

I'd argue the real lesson is that closing the borders is really not a good idea, because while it may reduce on some for some time, the countries benefiting from this may very well end up as the destination from the next refugee wave. It was easy for Poland to advocate closing the borders in 2015 since refugees were coming from the South. Who would have thought back then than millions of Ukrainians may one day be forced to flee. And who knows what else Putin has planned for the future.

Hopefully the new quota system will allow a fair distribution of refugees across the EU, thereby preventing some countries from being overwhelmed and allowing the integration efforts to be more succesful.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


That is really not an issue if they are caught crossing from Slubice to Frankfurt. We are not just talking about refugees from the Middle East or Africa here, but also possibly from Ukraine, which is really where most refugees come from nowadays.


So Merkel was right then in 2015 that closing the borders against the will of the Austrians would have been in violation of EU law? I thought that closing the borders was what PiS demanded back then? So surely they would not mind it if Germany finally does what they advocated all along?

I suppose it is easier to advocate closing the borders as long as you are not the ones being stuck with all the refugees then.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]

Should be interesting to see how Poland were to react if Merz actually orders that all refugee applications are to be rejected at the border and the people sent back to the safe country they came from.


As does Marxism. But I suspect few people who use that term know its' meaning.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]

"Marxists" and "Fascists" really have become empty buzzwords nowadays.


Because the new government will presumably be careful to target actual criminals and not imply that all incoming refugees are criminals with their rhetoric?

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Did the Nazis create antisemitism or did they amplify an already existing hostility towards jews?

Violence and hostility against refugees is hardly something that only came up as a reaction towards "Talahons".

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichtenhagen_riots

Nobody claims that the AfD created those resentment. What is being alleged is that they may be amplifying it.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


They are officially open towards qualified migrants and migrants from other EU countries (provided they work). Trouble is, if you are an African doctor, you don't have your job written on your head for everyone to see 24/7. So you are naturally affected by the negative attitude that may have been created by the AfD. Which btw is why the allegation that the AfD is deliberately creating such an atmosphere with their rhetoric is quite relevant.

There are already reports that regions where the AfD is strong are having trouble finding skilled migrant workers. Because really, if you have thr skills to work everywhere, why would you go to a region in a foreign country where the AfD is strong of all places.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


No. My response was to the question as to why there are no talks about banning the Left party as well.

Whether or not the AfD will be banned is up to the Constitutional Court. That Court has set a precedent that for a party to be banned, it not only needs to work against the constitution, but also have the size to realistically realize those ambitions in the future.
That is why banning the Neonazi party NPD failed, they were simply not big enough to pose a threat, even though they spelt out their program very clearly (which included btw regaining the former Eastern territories from Poland).

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Because the Left is not strong enough to qualify for a Verbot. They are not polling at 25% at the federal level and at 40%+ in some states. Once they do we can talk about a Verbot. The Constitutional Court that a ban can only apply to a party that is so strong that it may have a shot at realizing its' unconstitutional goals. Hence any attempt to ban the Left party would be doomed to failure.


*Looks at all the propaganda painting West Germany as a fascist hellhole being led by politicians plotting the invasion of the GDR.

Ever heard of "Sudel-Ede" von Schnitzler, the state propagandist?

As host of Der Schwarze Kanal, which ran for 20 minutes every Monday night, Schnitzler edited together extracts of Western television footage and recorded caustic, virulently anti-Western commentary over it. The show was particularly derisive towards West Germany and what Schnitzler perceived as Western imperialism across the world. His vitriolic style earned him the nickname Sudel-Ede - roughly, "Besmirching Eddie"

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Eduard_von_Schnitzler

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]

The AfD didn't have anything substantial to respond either.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]

Again, we are not talking about criticism of Islam here.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


On the contrary. If confirmed those views may be in direct contradiction with several cornerstones of the German constitution, starting with article 1.

The issue here is not their criticism of islam, but that they are allegedly inciting hatred against all who follow the religion (or look like they do). Now where in our history has a political movement stoked hatred against a group of people that were seen as part of a religion?

To give you an example: You can criticize the Catholic church, e.g. their doctrine that prevents women from becoming priests and how they handled the child abuse scandals.

However if you make wildly exaggerated, insulting and false claims that e.g. "all Catholics are women-hating, child-raping devils who are destroying Germany and need to be deported to the Vatican" than you would likely find yourself in trouble with the law because you are defaming a whole group of people in a way that may incite violence against them.

That is why e.g. calling refugees "Messermänner"and other derogatory terms by the AfD turns up in the report by the Verfassungsschutz.

Whether or not those allegations are true will be left to the courts to decide.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Using rhetoric to incite hatred against muslims and migrants and denying that German muslims are real Germans and question their citizenship however may very well be used against them in court. And my understanding is that there are plenty of examples for that by AfD politicians.


All the Verfassungsschutz did was observing the AfD and collecting evidence. The AfD can now sue against the classification. If they lose, it is not because the Verfassungsschutz was abused, but because the evidence they built was so strong that it was deemed sufficient by an independent court. Again, the AfD are not victims here. The party chose a strategy that inevitably raises doubt about their loyaly to the German constitution.