UPDATE: Preliminary results for the parties obtaining seats:

Front-paged with update by afew

Why is this election so important? And why is the CDU/FDP coalition in trouble?

Promoted by Jérôme. We'll have a results thread later today
Polls closed at 18h CET, exit polls are out, see comments -DoDo

Here's a new twist that sheds another light on the subject.

Court rules German welfare law unconstitutional | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 10.02.2010

The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has ruled that a five-year-old social welfare program known as Hartz IV is unconstitutional.

The ruling means that the current benefits paid out to those who qualify, including child dependents, must be adjusted. At present, adults receive 359 euros ($495), and children, depending on their age, between 215 euros and 287 euros.

The court gave lawmakers until the end of 2010 to come up with new guidelines for Germany's 6.7 million Hartz IV recipients. About 1.7 million children under the age of 14 are among those affected.

The court's decision was well received by a number of politicians, including German family minister Kristina Koehler.

"With its verdict, the court has established clarity and at the same time has considered the actual experience of many families with children, who are dependent on Hartz IV," said Koehler in a press release. "It is important and right, since it guarantees that the needs of children in families dependent on state benefits are appropriately considered."

This is a big deal in a whole lot of ways.

Religious Intelligence - News - Church of England backs hedge fund managers

The Church Commissioners have come to the aid of hedge fund managers, telling a parliamentary commission that "onerous" regulations proposed by the European Union to govern the financial services industry would harm British charities.

In a submission to the House of Lord's EU Economic and Financial Affairs and International Trade Committee, the Church Commissioners along with five other charities argued that the proposed directive regulating hedge funds would "significantly restrict our ability to generate funds to pursue our charitable missions and thus reduce our impact for public good."

The statement follows last September's charge by the Archbishop of York that hedge funds that bet on the decline of mortgage lender HBOS Plc were ``bank robbers'' and ``asset strippers."

The September submission by the Church Commissioners supports greater transparency and accountability for the financial services industry, but the proposed EU regulations would "limit the scope and potential return of our investment portfolio and hence reduce our charitable spend."

To maximize its financial returns, "we must have freedom to select the best investment managers and funds," they said.

Blessed are the poor, for they... afew

German leaders hail court's green light for EU reform treaty | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 30.06.2009

A ruling by Germany's highest court that the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty is compatible with German basic law has been received in Germany and Europe as an encouraging step forward. 

The court rejected complaints from Germany's far-left party and a maverick conservative member of parliament that the treaty would transfer too much power to Brussels.  It said the reforms were fundamentally in line with the country's constitution, but it set conditions.

Yellow Light from Constitutional Court: Germany Cannot Ratify Lisbon -- Yet - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Germany's highest court has ruled that the Lisbon Treaty is not fundamentally incompatible with the country's constitution. However, it has called a halt to the ratification process until the German parliament changes a domestic law to strengthen the role of the country's legislative bodies in implementing European Union laws.

With the process of ratifying the Lisbon Treaty hitting one speed bump after another, many would have expected that at least Germany would have given the treaty safe passage. However, an attempt by some German legislators to block its ratification has led to delays even in the European Union's biggest country.

With such reporting, one can well understand why interested readers were left plaintively wondering:

ThatBritGuy:

Er - so was the light green, yellow or some other colour?

Actually, this ruling might best be described as a victory for due process.

Front-paged with a slight edit by afew

Well, at the moment, it ain't gonna happen:

promoted by afew

Promoted with slight edit by DoDo

Now, I deplore waste (and lawn watering) as much as the next lefty. But such a discussion ignores a fairly large elephant in the room.

Our economic system is outmoded, the interests of capital exclusively dominate the world.

Admittedly, there is nothing about this insight that is particularly noteworthy.

Except that the person speaking is Heiner Geissler, who used to be Helmut Kohl's pit bull. Let's savor the irony.

from the diaries. --Jérôme

Süddeutsche Zeitung: New Survey: Majority of Germans is Unsatisfied with Democracy

Der Wirtschaft geht es besser, doch die Zustimmung zu den politischen Abläufen im Land ist auf einen historischen Tiefstand gesunken. Die Bundesrepublik erscheint vielen als ein ungerechtes Land. Die Deutschen sind erstmals mehrheitlich nicht mehr zufrieden damit, wie die Demokratie in der Bundesrepublik funktioniert. Das ist das Ergebnis des neuesten ARD-Deutschlandtrends, der vom WDR in Köln veröffentlicht wurde. Trotz besserer wirtschaftlicher Rahmendaten sei die gesellschaftliche Stimmung auf dem Tiefpunkt. Zufrieden mit den demokratischen Abläufen äußerten sich nur noch 49 Prozent der Befragten. Das seien elf Prozentpunkte weniger als im September 2005 und der niedrigste je im Deutschlandtrend gemessene Wert. Auch das Empfinden, dass es in der Gesellschaft eher ungerecht zugeht, ist der Umfrage zufolge seit dem Sommer kontinuierlich gestiegen. Nur noch 27 Prozent der Bundesbürger (minus acht Prozentpunkte im Vergleich zum September 2006) bezeichnen die Situation im Land als gerecht, 66 Prozent hingegen als ungerecht (plus vier Prozentpunkte).

The economy has improved, but approval of the nation's political processes has reached a historic low. Many perceive the Federal Republic as an unfair country. For the first time, a majority of Germans is no longer satisfied with the way democracy functions in the Federal Republic. This is the result of the latest "Deutschlandtrend" survey of national broadcaster ARD, which was released by member broadcaster WDR in Cologne. In spite of better economic data, the social mood has reached a low point. Only 49 percent of respondents expressed themselves satisfied with the democratic processes. This is 11 percentage points less than in September 2005 and the lowest level ever measured in Germany. The survey also revealed that the perception that society is more unfair than otherwise has increased continuously since the summer. Only 27 percent of German citizens (eight percentage points less than in September 2006) regard the situation in the country as fair, 66 percent consider it unfair (plus four percentage points).

A brief tour of German discontents.

Excellent diary and discussion -- afew

KEDUNGBENDO, Indonesia, Oct. 5 -- It started as a natural gas well. It has become geysers of mud and water, and in a country plagued by earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis another calamity in the making, though this one is largely man-made.

Eight villages are completely or partly submerged, with homes and more than 20 factories buried to the rooftops. Some 13,000 people have been evacuated. The four-lane highway west of here has been cut in two, as has the rail line, dealing a serious blow to the economy of this region in East Java, an area vital to the country's economy. The muck has already inundated an area covering one and a half square miles.

And it shows no signs of stopping.

This is an environmental disaster story, complete with a villain (if not a happy ending).

Update [2005-12-30 5:19:0 by Jerome a Paris]: I have bumped the diary back into the diaries. I will only front page a story on this topic that thoroughly debunks the spurious Russian claims that thye will cut off any gas deliveries...

Ukraine has rejected Moscow's offer of a loan to help pay for a controversial hike in the cost of Russian gas.

Russia wants to quadruple the amount it charges Kiev for the gas in order, it says, to bring it up to global norms - but Ukraine is accusing it of spite.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the impasse has led to a "real crisis" in relations between the two countries.

Russia says it will cut gas supplies by Sunday if Kiev does not comply.(...)

Russia and Ukraine are set to resume crisis talks on Friday in a bid to resolve a dispute over gas prices.

This month has seen two major international conferences, on international trade and global warming. But there has been little attention given to the connections between the two issues.

A recent study analyzes the extent to which international trade has shifted CO2 emissions from the US to China - and how much additional CO2 has been produced in the process. This has implications not just for the US and China, but for the entire Kyoto Protocol.

The short version:

• There is currently "little acute risk".


• Free-range poultry are to be confined to cages for the duration of the bird migration season.


• Germany will make €20 million available for vaccine research.


• Plus, a local health official describes the state of preparedness on the ground.

Details below the fold.

Bird Flu Possibly Already in Europe

While fairly superficial, as befits a provincial newspaper, this article does contain some interesting details about propagation channels.

Jump:

A couple of months ago I wrote a diary about the US-VISIT program, which requires visitors from abroad to submit to biometric identification. I also described the technical problems they have.

The Department of Homeland Security now wants to raise the ante and is about to start a pilot program in which foreigners will be issued an RFID ID card readable from 10 to 15 meters away.

More below the fold.