Don’t trust him. Merz is and always has been a bullshitter. He is angling for votes.
Please.
Don’t get your hopes up. Merz would sell his own mother if it raised his chances of getting elected. He’s just listening to what’s unpopular about the current government and claiming to do whatever is the exact opposite. A lot of it is just hot air from yet another populist.
I expect him to continue support for Ukraine though, so that’s good at least.
Hell, I’m in support of Merz selling his own mother if it means more support for Ukraine.
… I may be in a dark place right now.
Oh, now voting for Trump (and nothing else would voting for Merz be) is fine?
Hypocrite.Is Merz really Trump-level bad? I know only the basics of German politics (what each party roughly is)
Tue be completely honest that would be more like the AfD. But Merz recently cried about how the “Brandmauer” to them was forced upon them by the media and he or his party never used the term.
Which was a lie of course, his then general secretary used it first in like 2021 and shortly after he used it as well. It’s just that it was more popular at the time to deny any plan with working with them. And those fucks sure didn’t get less shitty over time.He also said the other day he’d do deals with Trump. Whatever those are supposed to be.
Edit: Forgot the conclusion: Not quite literally a facist like the shit smelling convict, but not all that much better either.
Well, certainly not thrilled about the prospect of Merz, then. Hopefully this position ends up shared amongst the other candidates, though.
He also said the other day he’d do deals with Trump. Whatever those are supposed to be.
tbf, everyone is saying that, in part because “One of the biggest nations in the world just elected a moron we can’t work with” is considered undiplomatic, whereas “we’ll do deals” gives the illusion of hope and an out if Trump demands something ridiculous (as he inevitably will).
All this talk about human trafficking, smh. Sad.
What about we sell his mother for a commission?
That’s actually my reasoning voting for him…Kleineres Übel…and let’s be honest, Scholz never was Chancellor material, Habeck still needs more time and I don’t think he’s got enough support from the greens “realoflügel” to have his back and on top of that, the greens do not have enough support to “make” Chancellor. I hate Merz’ s guts, but unless the SPD finds a different candidate (Pistorius, anyone…? I’d vote in a heartbeat for him and I despise the SPD)…Merz is it, even with the risk of an Afd involvement. So if he sells his mother for Taurus in Ukraine and punish Putins utter madness once and for all…so be it.
Your fine with private messages not being private anymore, social securities being cut (including ukrainian refugees) and the police getting closer to US style?
No, I’m not, but the security of Europe is more important than social issues. Apart from that…the Greens have betrayed themselves. https://netzpolitik.org/2024/foto-nachruf-auf-gruene-und-fdp-sie-waren-buergerrechtsparteien/
Habeck is a realo, not fundie. Support for him among green voters (which is what actually counts, not party members, he’ll get his nomination because who else should they run) is overwhelming, very good among SPD voters, AfD voters hate him and that won’t change any time soon, CDU is where he’s going to have to make inroads. Perception-wise the problem is competence, blame that on the Bild campaign and I absolutely expect that to shift very quickly once people actually hear him in a debate.
I listened to Habecks musings quite often and I pray he’s not going to be Chancellor.
That’s OK. If this. Message is popular it pushes his opponent in this direction too.
There is only two opponents to Ukraine aid in the current federal parliament. The neoliberal FDP who just got booted out of the government and wanted to use Ukraine aid to ransom away social security, infrastructure investments and work towards mitigating climate change, and the fascist Putin financed AfD. The FDP is Merz favorite potential next coalition partner, if they should make it to parliament again. The AfD is what Merz is working towards since three years, but cannot make a coalition yet, because he needs to work more on normalizing them first. This currently happens on local and state level.
Merz is only been “pro Ukraine” because Scholz messed up regarding Taurus missiles and because the FDP used it as ransom to ruin other aspects of the state budget. Merz focused on this message as a driving wedge in the dysfunctional, now broken coalition. There is little reason to believe, that he is genuinely caring about Ukraine, or that he would make that a deciding factor in coalition negotiations.
It shouldn’t be that only one side wins, we need to make agreements that are favourable to both sides.
Yeah I really hope he means like, Russia fuck off to their side of the fence and everyone peel back sanctions, as opposed to give Russia some of the occupied territory
Is there any hint of a reason why Putin would ever be scared of Taurus missiles?
from a glance, they look very equivalent to the british storm shadows Ukraine already gets.Not that Germany shouldn’t supply, it just seems that this ultimatum is a purely political idea about the upcoming german elections.
Merz ist a Joke and he will most certainly not pull through if the Trump Administration interferes. Just another US Puppet, which in Turn is a Russian puppet… so yeah, just a stunt.
Also, what would even be the end of the war? By Putin logic complete and unconditional surrender by Ukraine would also be the end of the war.
Merz’s threat is not “fuck off behind 1991 borders within 24 hours”. Complete smoke and mirrors shitshow.
Merz says a lot of things when the day is long, especially when elections are getting closer.
Thank you for the perspective.
It’ll be interesting to see how much the Allies game kicks up in the next 2 months now that the Orange Potato and Elon Musk were elected President.
I hope it’s effective.
The new fragrance, Orange Potato Musk. Mmmmmm
Now I’m trying to figure the bottle and cologne ad for Orange Potato Musk.
Removed by mod
Just for the record, and context: That wasn’t misogyny, it’s not calling any woman anything (though using a word vulgarly referring to female genitalia), it’s the established insult for Merz. Really doesn’t translate well, not so much word-wise but connotation and implication-wise. Cf. the American vs. English vs. Australian usage of the word, doesn’t translate at all and that’s within the same language.
It’s an imputed high-school nickname calling him, in my reading, an immature braggart. You know, 12yold brags about their extensive sexual experience, gets called “pussy hunter” in return to make fun of him. There’s also the additional linguistic quibble that the word, to the amusement of the rest of the republic, simply means “face” in Bavarian and can be used there more or less in the sense of “gob”, as in “shut your gob”. He indeed has a big one.
what a muppet.
“I am also willing to promise anything to get elected”
- slaacaa (LM-MY)
You have my vote
if something like this works (I am guessing only if many EU countries follow suit) then maybe us Americans can suffer 4 years of Trump in exchange for Ukrainian freedom.
As an american, I’ll suffer the bullshit that the right does, if it means Ukraine gets to still exist. Give me some of their pain. I wish I could take that for them.
Wow. The same “we’ll easily end this war” bullshit that Trump is spewing. That didn’t take long.
When this moron takes over (and he will), it’s gonna get real bad.
“End the war or I’ll arm the shit out of Ukraine” is different from “end the war please daddy I’ll let you have half of Ukraine.”
Sounds like this guy is a piece of shit though so who knows.
We are in WW3.
Halt dein Maul, Merz!
Noise from a political candidate who will do something if and when he gets elected.
To quote the Spartans, “If”.
Glad to see someone in Europe is growing some balls about standing up to Russia though
sorry to break it to you, but Merz is a populist. He will tell you everything to get voted.
And, frankly, he is a real dickhead. The little Trump of Germany.
The Spartans got annihilated so maybe not a great group to quote.
Oh I’m sure the thought of two dozen cruise missiles will straighten Putin out ASAP.
For starters, this would not be a new or unprecedented capability for the Ukrainians.
If Germany had several hundred to part with immediately, and the capacity to regularly replenish those stocks, that would make a significant difference on the battlefield, but I doubt it would make Putin sue for peace.
But of course, Germany does not have those kind of stockpiles or manufacturing capacity to maintain that.
Still, it would be nice to see more European politicians picking up the banner of supplying Ukraine in the face of likely diminished, or eliminated, American transfers.
Oh, believe me…we have that manufacturing capabilities. I live near where parts of Taurus are made… It’s just that there’s no “demand” and the bundeswehr doesn’t have enough money to just order them to stockpile.
Capability and capacity are two very different things.
Yes, I understand the manufacturing capability exists, but it’s capacity is limited i.e. existing facilities could not maintain a strategically significant production volume relative to Ukraine’s needs, much less to deter Putin.
The Taurus KEPD-350 is a German-Swedish air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by Taurus Systems … https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_KEPD_350
Makes sense, that’s such a Taurus thing to do
As a Libran, all I can launch are tampons.
As a pisces, I studied the blade.
Sounds like Daniel’s the one missing out.
