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The journalist's statement is a bit oversimplyfied. There are many conflicting non-economic issues, like European integration (Turkey!), status and role of immigrants in Germany, energy policy, internal security and civil rights etc. etc...

The main difference is the election system: first-past-the-post versus relative majority system.

by Saturday (geckes(at)gmx.net) on Sun Sep 18th, 2005 at 06:12:53 PM EST
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well, energy policies and internal security are IMO subsets of economic issues. Turkey's integration into the European Union, well ... so what. Germans vote for one party versus the other because of this specific issue? I would be surprised. Civil rights? So what's the raging civil rights issue in Germany these days, which would cause the Germans to hit the streets and protest about and die for?

You have to see that I didn't mean to say there aren't other issues, but I compared to the hateful divisity many social and culture and "value" issues cause in the US.

by mimi on Sun Sep 18th, 2005 at 09:01:03 PM EST
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