Guim Bonaventura's List: Alemanya - Germany

• Several hundred protesters hung their shoes on the iron fence outside the Defense Ministry in Berlin in a sly (again, typically German) multivalent allusion both to the now familiar Arab insult of displaying the soles of one’s shoes and also to the missing footnotes in Mr. Guttenberg’s dissertation.
• calling oneself doctor for having completed a thesis in, say, political science or art history, is not embarrassing but normal, even when filling out Lufthansa’s online booking forms.

• The widespread expectation now is that Mr. Guttenberg, whose popularity has not dimmed but increased, according to the latest polls, will retreat for a while

• Ara bé, la salut econòmica del país no determina, com en molts casos s’ha observat en altres països, la salut electoral dels partits polítics. I menys en el cas de les eleccions als lands alemanys, que sistemàticament s’han mostrat capaços de mantenir un debat polític i unes dinàmiques de suport electoral força alienes a les tendències observades a nivell estatal.
• Aquest estat situat al sudoest d’Alemanya –tercer en extensió i en població, i una de les locomotores econòmiques del país amb una gran quantitat d’indústria i d’empreses punteres a nivell internacional– està a punt de patir un xoc electoral sense precedents.
• Malgrat que s’espera que els cristianodemòcrates siguin la força política que reculli el major nombre de sufragis, és molt proabable que aquests no puguin sumar prous representants amb l’FPD per arribar a la majoria. En aquest cas, s’obriria la porta a un possible acord entre els Verds (que passarien de ser la  segona del parlament) amb l’SPD.
• la CDU va patir una forta devallada l’octubre del 2010 arrel d’unes concessions d’obra en una empresa “amiga” per realitzar remodelacions a l’estació d’Stuttgart

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• Ara bé, això era fins fa una setmana. Després del gran terratrèmol, el tsunami i el desastre nuclear al Japó, el partit Verd ha reactivat encara més el seu ja de per si tema estrella de l’energia nuclear i de la necesitat de tancar les plantes atòmiques, al mateix temps que creixia notablement la por i les reticències a aquest tipus d’energia a Alemanya. Els resultat? En menys de 10 dies el partit Verd ha incrementat la seva expecatativa de vot en un 25%
• el desastre nuclear al Japó sembla que ha encoratjat a molts votants a replantejar-se el seu vot per les eleccions del proper diumenge. Sorprenentment, sembla que l’SPD no rep tant les conseqüències del desastre com el partit d’Angela Merkel
• La situació que marquen ara mateix les enquestes permetria que la coalició Verds-socialdemòcrates pogués arribar al parlament d’Stuttgart, tot i que sempre dependria de si l’FPD i L’esquerra poden aconseguir el 5% dels vots que els permetria entrar al parlament.

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• Els Verds, després del desastre de Fukushima sembla que consoliden la segona posició, per sobre de l’SPD. La CDU manté amb força el liderat però mostra una lleugera tendència a la baixa, especialment després del desastre nuclear del Japó. I tant els liberals de l’FPD com els postcomunistes de l’Esquerra continuen la pugna per superar la barrera del 5% que els permetria entrar al Parlament d’Stuttgart.

• Things couldn't get much worse for Chancellor Merkel. Or could they?
• Mappus' problems, however, go beyond his party's sinking numbers nationwide. The Baden-Württemberg governor, after all, has long been a firm, even boisterous, supporter of nuclear energy.
• Mappus has also found himself on the wrong side of large-scale protests against the exorbitantly expensive renovation of the Stuttgart train station and downtown area.
• Police violence in efforts to break up repeated protests at the site did Mappus no favors.

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• in two state elections on Sunday, her junior coalition partners, the Free Democrats, stand to lose the most
• If the FDP does not receive the 5 percent necessary for parliamentary representation in one or both of those states, Westerwelle could soon be demoted.
• In recent months, surveys have found that merely one in 20 German voters is prepared to support the party.
• n an  election last Sunday in Saxony-Anhalt, the party received a paltry 3.8 percent of the vote, missing out on parliamentary representation there.

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• The Greens will lead a German state for the first time.
• Merkel's Christian Democrats have governed Baden-Württemberg since 1953, but anger over her nuclear policy in light of the Japan crisis as well as decisions on Libya and the euro angered voters in the run-up to the poll.
• The outcome will increase the pressure on Germany's already embattled Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle
• Westerwelle said in Berlin. “Energy policy was decisive. It was a referendum about atomic energy and we have gotten the message.”

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• For the CDU, losing Baden-Württemberg is as bad as the loss of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was for the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) of then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in May 2005.
• But it would be unwise to start writing off Merkel. Editorialists speculate that she will now begin wooing the Greens as a possible coalition partner to help her secure a third term after the 2013 election.

• The Green's leading candidate, Winfried Kretschmann, talked of a "historic electoral victory," while national Green Party co-leader Claudia Roth described the result as "the start of a new political era."

• Some might argue that the Green Party's success in Sunday state elections was the direct result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But it's not. Germany's political landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. And the Greens have been the primary beneficiary.
• "In the cultural debates which have been waged in recent years, whether they focused on lifestyle issues, questions of values or nuclear energy, the center-left and the Greens have the support of society's new core," writes political analyst Franz Walter
• Winfried Kretschmann, set to become the governor of Baden-Württemberg at the head of a coalition with the SPD, is a 62-year-old former biology teacher who sings in the local church choir and belongs to the village shooting club. His favorite pastime is hiking in the hills of the Schwäbische Alb with his wife. Instead of fiery political speeches, Kretschmann relies on intellectual seriousness -- blood pressures tend to sink rather than rise when he strides to the podium.
• Polls, though, had been predicting Kretschmann's rise for months, well before Fukushima and well before Libya.

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• Misery is moving house in Berlin: Many of the city's problems are shifting out toward the city limits, into new slums which are starting to resemble Paris's dreaded banlieues.
• Meanwhile, areas such as northern Neukölln, neighboring Kreuzberg and other parts of the city traditionally populated by workers and immigrants are becoming increasingly popular with middle class residents and hipsters. Tourists are also attracted to the areas by glowing articles in the international media.
• It's a dangerous development. Urban studies experts warn of the segregation that occurs when a society breaks down into various parts that rarely come into contact with one another. "This displacement needs to be stopped," Häussermann says
• The current mayor acts concerned about social issues, Künast claims, but in reality is allowing rents to rise and leaving poorer people to fend for themselves. "Berlin is the capital of low-paid jobs," the Green Party politician says

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• Some parts of the city have seen their populations swapped out completely in the time since the Berlin Wall fell. One in two city residents first moved to the German capital after 1990.
• City planners in the mid-19th century developed a recipe for good cohesion within the city, constructing residential buildings that preserved Berlin's social mix by housing rich people in the front buildings and poor people in the side wings and rear buildings off central courtyards.
• one in four Berliners affected by rent increases plans to move soon. This January, meanwhile, Wowereit declared rising rents were a good sign
• Diversity and difference have always been important principles in European urban planning. But what happens when a city is left to its own devices -- when the market rules and politics takes a back seat?

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• dangerous rhetoric spreading across Berlin
• Foreign visitors are being blamed for increasing rents, noisy streets and neighbourhood upheaval.
• Until recently, it was difficult for landlords to increase rent prices above a certain percentage each year. In the last few years these rent controls have been reduced.
• The solution to gentrification is not to demonize foreigners; it is to reduce the influence of the free market by strengthening rent price controls.
• Many of the critics of new foreigners are themselves migrants from other countries and other German cities who moved to Berlin several decades ago.
• This “othering” of internationals is a form of racism and xenophobia.

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• affluent foreigners from Europe and America are being blamed for rising rents
• Neukölln, which has a reputation in Germany as being a rough inner-city district with a large number of immigrants and widespread social problems, has become increasingly fashionable in recent years
• The recent closure of nearby Tempelhof Airport has also increased the area's desirability
• Rents have doubled in some cases, and some poorer residents have been forced to move to housing projects on the edges of Berlin that are in danger of  becoming slums.
• frustration is being directed at the many wealthy new arrivals from Western countries -- students, families and young professionals
• At the same time, there's a sense of ambivalence and resignation. Is there really any way to stop gentrification? And does it make sense to blame any one group of people for it?
• sometimes people move to Neukölln from overseas and can live successfully speaking only English and never learning German.

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• Das Haus Weisestrasse 47 gehört Henning Conle
• mindestens 2500 Wohnungen gehörten
• Das Haus in der Weisestrasse 47 steht seit Jahren fast komplett leer
• Der Besitzer will wohl abwarten, bis er das Haus zum Höchstpreis verkaufen kann

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• Chancellor Angela Merkel says she has changed her mind about nuclear power following the Fukushima accident
• "My view of nuclear energy has been changed by the events in Japan," she said
• In effect, nuclear power has lost all political support in Germany because all parties know they are doomed to haemorrhage voters if they go on backing it.
• the government will present a concept in June for an exit from nuclear power
• Business leaders are warning that Europe's largest economy will face sharp hikes in energy prices if it pulls the plug on its nuclear plants, which currently account for almost 23 percent of the country's power production.
• Citizens and voters are asking whether they can still believe her

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• In the so-called Fall of Decisions, last year, Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an attack on the "Party of Protest," declared alliances with the Greens at the federal level to be "pipe dreams" and laid the groundwork for the greatest provocation possible -- a drastic extension of reactor life spans.

• According to Palmer, an era of fundamental disagreement over the future of German reactors has ended, and soon the parties will just be arguing over the details. "Suddenly the only insurmountable reason to rule out a CDU/Green alliance is gone."