Angela Merkel came to romantic Heidelberg yesterday to give a speech in a final campaign push before the European elections today. Despite the rare sprinkling of rain we experienced, a good time was had by all, I'd say.
She gave a pretty standard speech, focusing on our democratic right to vote. No matter who we choose, or why, the most important thing is to vote. I found this quite refreshing, as Merkel was acting as spokeswoman for the CDU (conservatives), her party, rather than as Chancellor of Germany. The event yesterday was really just a party rally, with Merkel as the headliner, but the focus was CDU (Christian Democratic Union) candidate for the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. No one is directly voting for or against Merkel today, but they are voting for Pöttering. I am very excited about this election, if only because it seems to be a movement towards a further united Europe. In essence, Europe is, or may become very soon, a very loose version of the USA with extremely strong and inalienable states' rights. The election tomorrow is like a congressional election, sending representatives from member states to Brussels to debate legislation that affects all of Europe. Merkel spoke in depth about what Europe can do for Germany, and what it shouldn't. She lauded the open market and single currency. As a country of 80 million, Germany doesn't have a ton of influence in the world of 7 billion people. But in cooperation with the European Union, Germany places itself in a situation of a bit more influence, with 450 million people. The European Union multiplies possible consumers of German products more than fivefold. But certain policies need to be controlled by the countries themselves, and Merkel brought up a rather humorous example- earlier this year, panic struck German bakeries due to a possible regulation from the EU on salt levels. German bread had too much salt and was making its customers fat. Merkel stoked the populist revolt by chanting, "Unser Brot ist gut!" (Our bread is good!). Just as the federal government leaves many decisions up to the states, here Merkel employed an example where the EU has really no business intervening, but rather where the country itself should protect its culture, tradition, and culinary prowess from encroaching EU regulation.
What also struck me was the labeling of the CDU as the conservative voice in German politics. In the US two-party system, the CDU would be the Republicans, and the SPD (Social-Democratic Party of Germany) would be the Democrats. In addition, Germany has a strong tradition of smaller, more specific parties, with a prevalent Green Party and many other representatives of smaller, "fringe" interests. This is possible due to the percentage system used to elect representatives, as well as the possibility of coalition governments, where multiple parties are forced to pair together to create an overall majority. The percentage system means simply that people vote for a party, and each party has a list of representatives, and depending on what percentage of the national vote the party receives, they are then allowed to send that percentage of the Congress to Berlin.
Anyway, so the heavy hitters and the representative of mainstream right-left politics would be the SPD and the CDU. In American politics, I generally fall left of center. I appreciate sound environmental practices, think trickle-down tax concepts are worthless, and support gay marriage and quality healthcare for everyone in the country. And with this in mind I went to a "conservative" party rally in the main square of Heidelberg. And what were the main points of Merkel's speech? The continuation of vigorous research in renewable energy and the regulation of banks to avoid another crisis. It seems that the political spectrum in Germany is shifted to the left, whereas in America we are so tied up by backwards political games. Take evolution and global warming. The fact that these two concepts are even debated in the US is cause for laughter here. In the case of global warming, Germany takes the stance that it most likely exists, and even if it doesn't, we're not hurting anyone by avoiding the use of (finite) fossil fuels. It seems that Germany has already solved and moved on from some of the arguments
So what makes this party conservative? One comparison is to the SPD, which would fall far left of the Democrats in the US. The SPD stands for social justice, modernization of the economy into a social market economy, improvement and advancement of the welfare state, worker's rights, world peace, etc. But something happened yesterday at the end of the rally that friends of mine noted as quite conservative, but that I found commonplace- the politicians on stage and supporters in the crowd sang the national anthem at the end. Supposedly the SPD would never do that. I can't imagine a political rally in the US that wouldn't be full of American flags and national anthems. If singing the national anthem is conservative, then I may have to rethink my political alignment.
Of course I'm ignoring the elephant in the room when it comes to German pride. But that's super complicated and something we could maybe discuss later.
Anyway, it was pretty cool to see Ms Merkel in person.
I am definitely biking to Tübingen this week, either on Wednesday or Thursday. Rick and I are going to camp one night, then get to Tübingen on day 2, spend a day sightseeing, and ride the train back. Very pumped.
