German State Elections, 2012

**Phoenix Rising** · 05-04-2012, 04:30 PM

Germany is a federation of 16 states, and two of these states will be having state elections in 2012. Rather than creating a new thread for each of the state's respective elections, I have decided it would be prudent to have one thread to cover all of the German state elections in 2012. The two largest political parties are the centre-right (centre-left by normal standards) Christian Democratic Union (CSU in Bavaria) and the centre-left (far-left by normal standards) Social Democratic Party of Germany; both of these parties support the European Union. The National Democratic Party is a nationalist party that is opposed to immigration by "non-ethnic Germans" and hopes to restore the "Greater German Empire," consisting primarily of lands formerly held by the Holy Roman Empire and German Empire. Die Linke (or "The Left") is a democratic socialist organization, founded by members of the former Socialist Unity Party, which was the ruling communist party in East Germany. The Republicans are a conservative party that gathers much of it's support from conservatives and eurosceptics who believe that the Christian Democratic Union has moved too far to the left and shows too much support for the European Union. There are several other parties competing in the elections, with some parties only being active in certain states.

Schleswig-Holstein - May 6 - All 69 Seats
North Rhine-Westphalia - May 13 - All 181 Seats

SPOILER!!:

**Alpha** · 05-04-2012, 05:44 PM

I'm sorry, but I take huge issue with you describing social democracy as 'far left by normal standards'. If social democracy is far-left, what are the various socialist, communist and Marxist parties? Social democrats form the centre-left in the majority of Western states. If anything, the United States is the exception. The New Zealand prime minister of the economically conservative/socially moderate centre-right government described his own party as being equivalent to the US Democratic party.

**Phoenix Rising** · 05-04-2012, 09:02 PM

Social democracy is hardly centre-left, it's not my fault the European Union is a socialist hellhole. It's gotten so bad that democratic socialism can almost be considered right-wing in most European countries. To answer your question, communism would also be far-left, or rather, "revolutionary" left.

**Alpha** · 05-04-2012, 09:42 PM

Then what is centre-left?

US Republicans have used hyperbole for too long. It is not socialist to have marginal taxation, a system of subsidies and taxes, a financial transactions tax... All those things correct market failures and are done to improve the working of the market economy, not to undermine it.