German Greens Surge In Poll To Rival Merkel's CDU

[reorg]

Source: Dow Jones Newswires

By Bernd Radowitz, Dow Jones Newswires
Apr 6, 2011 | 2:46PM

BERLIN -(Dow Jones)- Concern about atomic power continued to boost Germany's opposition Green party, which together with the Social Democrats, or SPD, would supplant Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right government if elections were held today, an opinion poll published Wednesday showed.

The Greens would become the second-strongest party and for the first time could claim the post of Germany's chancellor, according to a poll published by the Forsa survey institute for Stern magazine. General elections are still two years away, though.

Jumping seven percentage points from a survey a week earlier, the Greens now would garner 28% of votes, becoming the biggest opposition party before the SPD, which is seen at 23%, according to the poll. The two main opposition parties together would have a 51% majority.

Currently, the CDU, FDP and SPD are spending most of their time debating how to phase out nuclear power, but the issue is seen as a Green core theme, leaving the other parties without credibility, Forsa head Manfred Guellner is quoted as saying in a release by Stern magazine.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201104060403dowjonesdjonline000304&title=german-greens-surge-in-poll-to-rival-merkels-cdu

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(also in WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704101604576246303657017690.html)

After winning the election in Baden-Württemberg, the Greens jumped another 7 percent in the polls within a week.

http://www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/stern-rtl-wahltrend-die-fdp-verkuemmert-zur-splitterpartei-1671504-infographic.html

[tabasco]

1. SPD must be kissing too much reich-wing ass,

like the Democrats here.

[reggie the dog]

4. the SPD are actually on the left

social democrats, remember their left did not go to war in iraq

economically they were blamed for "hurting the economy" with too much taxes by merkel when she won

basically the greens are seen as a newer, younger, more modern left party but the spd still have old school leftist support. i think that both parties are needed in germany and do not forget that the greens in france poll above ten percent too

[tabasco]

6. I know.

I was commenting on the SPD decline.

[villager]

2. Any Green Chancellor better stay out of small planes...

Certainly the banking/industrial cartel would feel obliged to "correct" any such accidental eruption of actual Western Democracy...

[reggie the dog]

5. i had someone on here claim that wellstone's death

was just an accident.... never mind that he was on the far left and a member of the Democratic Farm Labor party.... move along, nothing to see here

[abqmufc]

3. What would it take for the Green Party to have the success of the Tea Party?

I constantly wonder about the answer to this question.
In the past 12 months we've seen the BP spill and the greatest nuclear catastrophe, yet it was the far-right who had a political party emerge and find success. Granted the nuclear catastrophe in Japan occurred after the rise of the Tea Party, but they still seem to be winning the war on environmental legislation. The rise of the Tea Party showed us a 3rd party can have an impact in American politics, something most thought could not happen.

I look at the current Administration and am equally dismayed as I was by the previous Administration. There solutions for our energy needs are "clean coal" technology (burying CO2 under the ground is NOT technology), "safer" nuclear power plants (nuclear can be as safe as one wants to claim but humans always make errors), and minimal improvements to sustainable energy (solar, wind, wave).


20 years I've worked in the environmental policy arena and obtained advanced degrees in political science, but yet I am still left with no answer.
Apathy? Lack of leadership in the environmental movement? Fear of leaving the Democratic party (the established left)?

[No Elephants]

9. No mystery. Koch brothers planned theTea Party since the 1980's and funded it. Then, media fueled

it. Nothing similar happened on the Left.

Because Democrats and Republicans have succeeded in weakening 3rd Parties, most of tbe Left in the U.S. feel voting for a 3rd Party amounts to voting Republican.

As wedge issues narrow, and as differences between Democrats and Republicans narrow, voting for a 3rd Party may become less of a risk. Or, the Left may get one or more financiers, but I doubt it. Besides, the Left still would not own the media.

[abqmufc]

11. Great why doesn't Leo, Brad Pitt, and other moneybag enviros do the same?

I understand the rise of the Tea Party, but then it still doesn't answer why enviros don't do the same thing. The ecology/environmental movement has some very wealthy, very politically active people...why are they not taking a lead from the Koch's and creating a third party? Why is Leo, Brad and others still doing the bidding for the Dems when the Dems have done little for real environmental improvements?

The left may not own the media, but the left can control social media.

You bring up good points, but they still answer the question for me.

[No Elephants]

12. You expect me to explain Pitt, et al.? You would have to ask them, wouldn'.t you?

I could only hazard guesses, but I do have some.

Koch bros. did this for their businesses, not for something they do almost as a hobby. Maybe if incomes and careers of Pitt, et al. depended on funding a 3rd Party, they would. Also, sorry to say, actors are not always geniuses. "Empty vessels," they've been called. (Perhaps Warren Buffet would be a better example, but he's in his 80's.)

Also, Dems have long tended toward hero worship of charismatic figures, like FDR, JFK, Bubba and Obama, while Republicans led the way in bottom up nuts and bolts.

Hero worship tends to result in rationalizations, denial, rose colored glasses, not a desire to trounce.

And, again, ownership of media is a BIG one.

Also, unless you've already been very active in 3rd Party politics, maybe you could look inward for some answers oto your questions.

[abqmufc]

14. Good points, guess I need to get another PhD

i guess i am developing my own research idea for a 2nd PhD in poli sci.

My thoughts?

Nobody actually cares enough to make the real sacrifices that a true ecological party would have to base its platform on.
DC and capitalism does not see the logic into a transformation of a green economy until it is forced to do so (thus enviros are viewed as whack jobs in DC).
Finally the wealthy (those with power) do not see the impacts the middle class, poverty stricken people, and indigenous peoples already see with respect to ecological impacts. Brad Pitt doesn't live with the impacts of global climate shift on a daily basis, but figures it is a great cause to engage in b/c it looks good for PR work.

For example how many waste dumps are near the elite of the Left or Right?

How many wealthy folks are being told they must move in the next 5 years due to melting permafrost or rising oceans (like Native Alaskans are being told)?

In short in my eyes, under a capitalist mode,l it will never happen until a green economy is forced....it won't be forced till we drill the last drop of oil and mine the last spec of coal, unfortunately I suspect we will meet our demise before that happens.

And thus I daily think about ending my life b/c I want out of here, as I see it will never change we will kill ourselves via ecological destruction and justified by the "good book" says it has to be this way.

Thanks for your time.

[JackRiddler]

18. All it would need is for TV networks to spend two years covering every meeting of three Greens...

like it was the Second Coming of the American Revolution. Also, a few hundred million well-placed dollars from billionaire allies (written off, natch). Also, for media generally to live in terror of saying anything potentially offensive to Greens, and treating the inclusion of the Green view on every subject no matter what as an absolute necessity. Also, costumes. Funny period costumes with three-corner hats and such.

A dirty tricks department to help the cause by ambushing hate-targets is optional.

[JVS]

7. I wouldn't bank on it.

http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/index.htm

FORSA seems like an outlier when compared to other recent polls.

[reorg]

8. no it doesn't

The latest jump was registered within the last week, all the other polls at wahlrecht.de except Emnid are older. And Emnid is pretty close.

Of course that level may be short-lived, but there are a number of reasons why the Greens could indeed overtake the SPD in the long run and even take away votes from the CDU now, like they did in Baden-Württemberg. Even though many of their candidates have been radical leftists in a former life, they are essentially a conservative party. My impression is that at least in the cities they represent the mainstream today.

[No Elephants]

10. Here's hoping!

[burrowowl]

13. GO GREENS!

[brooklynite]

15. Perhaps their victory had something to do wth...

...running serious candidates, as opposed to the celebrity and vanity campaigns we get here

[xchrom]

16. Recommend

[Zorra]

17. Finally, people are starting to wake up. Good news. nt