Polls: German Government Lost Majority

Last polls show that the new federal government of Chancellor Angela Merkel would loose its majority if there were elections next Sunday. This happens just 100 days after the elections in autumn 2009.

Here are the results of the last elections (source):

Government:

• CDU/CSU: 33.8% (Chancellor Merkel)
• FDP: 14.6% (Foreign Minister Westerwelle)
• Together: 48.4%

Opposition:

• SPD: 23.0% (Social Democrats)
• Green Party: 10.7%
• The Left: 11.9%
• Together: 45.6%

And here are the results from the poll (source):

Government:

• CDU/CSU: 36%
• FDP: 8%
• Together: 44%

Opposition:

• SPD: 26%
• Green Party: 15%
• The Left: 8%
• Together: 46%

I think reasons for this development are a lot of controversities within the government. That’s astonishing for parties that have just decided to build a coalition.

But it seems to me that there’s a single topic that did really disturb the people:

The government reduced sales tax for overnight stays in hotels. It was one of the first measures of the new government and part of the so-called growth acceleration law. It was meant as a stimulus for the economy. Later wie learned that governing parties CSU and FDP had got donations from a company that’s a shareholder of a hotel company (2m Euros). FDP denied any connection. But there stayed a “smell” of corruption.

 

The Thief That Loves You

Some social networks out there make me shake my head. These days you can tell everyone what you’ve just purchased. Other services you can tell the world where you are travelling to. These services combined can give thieves hints of empty houses and flats and precious things they can find there. So why do people join such networks? It thought I made a joke when I wrote lately I could imagine a social network about your sexual behaviour. But that already exists.

I’m not alone wondering about this new phenomenon. Steven Colbert ist wondering, too:

The Word – Cognoscor Ergo Sum

 

This week in Germany: 02/03/10

A CD-ROM. This was one of the main topics in the news this week. It’s a special CD because it contains data of Swiss bank accounts from German tax evaders. An unknown person offered it to our federal government for 2.5 million Euros. Some people said the government can’t buy something that was stolen obviously. But a majority of the people and the media want the government buy the CD. Our minister for public finance Wolfgang Schaeuble declared he will buy it.

This decision is outraging the Swiss government because it will harm the Swiss financial sector which depends on the famous Swiss banking secrecy. But that doesn’t matter for Germany. We have a huge deficit of our budget after the financial crisis. In this situation there is no sympathy for tax evaders.

The tax evaders have a chance to avoid punishment. They have to send a corrected return to the fiscal authorities before authorities get the information about the tax evasion from the offered CD. There is data from 1500 persons on the CD. No tax evader knows if there’s information about him or her on it. This means stress for these people. They can keep calm and hope that they are not detected because their bank account isn’t on the CD. Or they are so nervous that they send a corrected return to their local tax office. During the last days many of them have done the latter. So the CD doesn’t only generate delayed tax payments from persons, whose names are on it. It brings a lot of money from people who have become nervous.