Following the Signs

Germans go to the polls today! Coming from a completely different political system, I don't really understand everything that is happening, but I am fascinated by the efficiency and the civility of the process. Political debates seem to stick to the issues, candidates let each other speak, and I didn't hear any personal attacks (or of I did, I didn't understand them!). Compared to what we have become used to in the US, the elections here seem, well, kind-of boring. I miss that.

In the US, we just have a two-party system. Here there are many, many parties; there is even one with pirates! 😊





Here no single party usually gets a majority of the votes, so parties have to form a coalition government (they have to work together?!). That's about as much as I have read about the German political system. So, this is not an in-depth report on German politics; most of my information comes from political signs.  (I'm still learning German, ok? Pictures help!)  Judging by the numbers of signs out there, it's easy to tell which parties are the major ones: the Christian Democrats (CDU), Chancellor Merkel's party; and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), whose candidate for the chancellorship is Martin Schulz.






The CDU is the center-right party. Americans will probably recognize the "Law and Order" slogan (top left), but the rest wouldn't fly in an American conservative party: making things easier for families? Quoting Obama to entice voters? Check out the sign about taxes (bottom right). Roughly translated, it says, "He who has a business here, must pay taxes here." NOWHERE does anyone suggest lowering taxes.











The SPD is center-left, but their signs look like the CDU's in some ways. The SPD is for keeping the EU, and it also mention families (see below). One difference is that the SPD campaigns on equal pay for women.



The SPD family policy is "loud and demanding"... looks like my kindergarten class! 





Political parties were only allowed to put up signs in early August for the September 24 election, which makes for a pretty short election cycle (yea!). You can't get too deep into a party's beliefs with their signs, but you can get feel for their focus, and children and families were a central theme. While the CDU and SPD mention families, the Green Party specifically mentions fighting child poverty.
The Freie Demokratie" Party--the pro-business party--focuses on education ("backpacks change the world, not briefcases.")





The AfD is concerned about children as well, but AfD wants those kids to be German (see below). I don't know much about German politics, but it was pretty easy to pick out AfD as the anti-immigrant party. Babies, bikinis, Dirndls...not exactly a platform. (You can see more AfD signs, including ones that are more crass, here.


Some of their signs in Berlin were vandalized last weekend ("Voting for AfD is so 1933").




Personally, I like the Green party's signs, though I dare say none of these slogans would get any traction in the U.S.



Some of my absolute favorites comes from Die Linke, the left, probably because they would be political suicide across the pond. Have you ever seen a political sign encouraging taxing millionaires to benefit children? Or asking for more workers in the healthcare industry?




There are even more smaller parties, too, though I don't know how many votes they'll get....

The Communist party: "Health as a commodity? That's sick!" 

...and if anyone has any idea what this one is about, please let me know.