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This is the place to insert another bit of info I came across over the past few days.

DDR-idolising Christel Wenger, the communist on a lower place on the Left Party list in Lower Saxony, made it into the regional parliament only due to the unexpected high success.

But this inspired some opponents in another way. As the Left Party jumped in Hamburg polls, on German webboards and blogs, a list spread with the communists on the Hamburg Left Party lists.

The twist is that Hamburg voted in a new election system. People vote for party lists and can specify five candidates, thus over-ruling the party lists...

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Sun Feb 24th, 2008 at 05:02:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You say
DDR-idolising Christel Wenger, the communist on a lower place on the Left Party list in Lower Saxony, made it into the regional parliament only due to the unexpected high success.

as if it's a bad thing.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Sun Feb 24th, 2008 at 06:44:32 PM EST
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She made some really fucking stupid comments.
by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Sun Feb 24th, 2008 at 07:03:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I didn't say it either as bad or good thing.

The implicit issue in what I said is a minor sub-thread of the public debate on Wenger between the Left Party and detractors accusing it of knowingly bringing along foul cargo. I am reporting, not commenting:

Wenger didn't enter the Left Party, only its list under the aggreement to only represent Left Party positions if elected. However, the accusation went further that the Left Party assured her presence in Parliament with that list place, "for a few votes more": as the trade-off was that the communist dwarf party DKP didn't run in the elections. But some from the Left Party countered that she was given a lower place on the list, which wouldn't have gotten her in had the party not beaten opinion polls (getting 7% instead of 5%).

And now I am commenting.

Though I don't completely agree with the interpretation in nanne's link, I wrote about Wenger's comments re idolising the DDR. Though Wenger claims she was tricked and edited by the reporters on the two parts I quoted and which were most discussed, there were other whoppers that are more in the category of whitewashing a past regime rather than advocating real communism or socialism, say stuff on Margot Honecker. She may have specific blinders on as the daughter of parents and being herself someone who was under long state surveillance and persecution in West Germany, but those are blinders nevertheless.

Note that I'm not sure I have any serious problems with the other DKP member turned scandal for the Left Party mentioned in my linked diary, Pit Merz.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Mon Feb 25th, 2008 at 05:23:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, she does sound as though not particularly ready for prime time.

This being said, I do note (via my father, who is in Germany roughly four months out of each year) that the internal situation viz. "reactionary forces" isn't particularly a good one, that being either black or in particular vietnamese in especially the former DDR can be quite difficult due to antisocial behavior on the part of local militants and the police do relatively little in these cases. I recall on firebombing case in Rostock getting much international cover, on vietnamese workers, and many attacks by skinheads in general, this later not being limited to the former DDR but also elsewhere in the new entrants to the EC.

Further it would appear that many wealthy Germans already have a hard time paying their proper share of taxes without even a properly Socialist tax and fiscal structure in place, so obviously this will need to be taken seriously.

Clearly, her polemics seem to be unauthorized and not particularly well phrased, politically.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Mon Feb 25th, 2008 at 11:02:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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