Another German President Going Down

**kato** · 19 Feb 12,, 22:14

Gauck gets the job, CDU and CSU have agreed to support him.

What will be interesting is how many CDU/CSU members of the assembly abstain...

**kato** · 20 Feb 12,, 18:01

Spiegel has designated Gauck's nomination as "Merkel's biggest defeat"; the FDP supporting SPD/Greens is hailed as "a giant break of trust" by CDU representatives. This includes some major internal CDU people like Bernhard Vogel or Wolfgang Bosbach.

Both Die Linke and the (small remaining) left wing of the SPD under General Secretary Andrea Nahles criticize the nomination of Gauck and the process in which the nomination was handled, excluding Die Linke from cross-partisan talks.

The way this is going i doubt Gauck will garner even just say 900 votes from the 1,099 votes the five parties supporting him hold. High enough to win, low enough to be a Blamage.

**kato** · 22 Feb 12,, 14:42

Die Linke is going for symbolism with their candidate choice. Gauck used to head the government agency looking into GDR Stasi files, exposing former Stasi agents.

The - preliminary - choice of the Linke as presidential candidate to oppose Gauck is Beate Klarsfeld. Klarsfeld is a prominent Nazi hunter, exposing and preparing the conviction of among others Lyon Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie and also - recently - had a large part in Alois Brunner, Eichmann's deputy who's living in Syria, being convicted in absentia in France.
She's also renowned for having slapped former chancellor Kiesinger out in public for his nazi past, as well as accusing other German politicians for the same in the 60s and 70s.

Klarsfeld is a Commander of the Ordre National du Merite and a Knight of the Honour Legion for her services to the French Nation. She's been nominated for the Federal Service Cross a few times but the nomination has continually been shot down by the Foreign Office for political reasons (under both FDP and Green foreign ministers).

Political cabarettist Georg Schramm, a possible candidate of the Pirates, turned down the possible nomination today btw.

**Doktor** · 22 Feb 12,, 14:59

With the destiny of your last two presidents, I think Schramm would live long and prosperous two terms life

**kato** · 27 Feb 12,, 12:50

Klarsfeld was officially nominated today.

**kato** · 03 Mar 12,, 09:03

Originally Posted by kato

Groenewald is a manager of a movie production fonds that received a 4 million Euro debt guarantee for one of its subsidiary companies from the state of Lower Saxony in 2006. Wulff also lobbied for movie production funds of the type Groenewald ran, which back in 2005 were under fire for being nothing but tax writeoff fonds for investors.

Groenewold's offices and home were searched yesterday. A planned search of Wulff's home on thursday was cancelled due to the presence of too many journalists. All Lower Saxon state ministries currently have staff going through their files searching for anything connecting Groenewold with Wulff and Glaeseker. The files handed over to the Hannover district attorney so far only comprise 450 pages and are considered incomplete in this regard.

**Egerland** · 05 Mar 12,, 19:05

Time to push the reset button (to 1910), bring back the Kaiser and the Mark.

**kato** · 05 Mar 12,, 20:58

The Federal Republic of Germany is a democratic and social federal state. All state authority is derived from the people. It shall be exercised by the people through elections and other votes and through specific legislative, executive and judicial bodies. All Germans shall have the right to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order, if no other remedy is available.

**kato** · 06 Mar 12,, 13:11

None of the four alive ex-presidents (Schmidt, von Weizsäcker, Herzog, Köhler) will take part in the military ceremonies for Wulff's dismissal btw.

**kato** · 18 Mar 12,, 16:53

Originally Posted by kato

The way this is going i doubt Gauck will garner even just say 900 votes from the 1,099 votes the five parties supporting him hold.

Gauck got 991 votes today, Klarsfeld 126, neonazi Olaf Rose got 3 votes from the NPD and 108 delegates abstained, 7 delegates refused to attend the assembly, 5 gave invalid votes.

**Doktor** · 18 Mar 12,, 19:16

kato,

Is it a public vote? I ask you this because, imv, later those who were abstaining, those who refused to vote and those voting invalid... should have no say in the Presidents rule.

**kato** · 18 Mar 12,, 21:34

Originally Posted by Doktor

Is it a public vote?

Of course not. Secrecy is considered one of the core tenets of a real democratic system, and applied in almost every election in Germany (not in votes in parliamentary bodies, those aren't elections). Violating it is punishable by a couple years jail here.