How do you like this headline in the New York Times:
German Elites Drawn to Anti-Euro Party, Spelling Trouble for Merkel
I certainly like it. Along with the wonderful commentary calling for a surgical strike on North Korea, it’s been a good week for the Times! (Or a bid week for Sandy!)
Here’s the article and here’s some highlights:
The new party is driven by a collection of elites, not a groundswell from the streets, starting with Bernd Lucke, 50, a Hamburg economics professor. Mr. Lucke, along with many of the new party’s supporters, previously belonged to Ms. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union before the Greek bailouts forced him to reconsider.
The Times reports that 2/3 of the signers of the manifesto have a earned doctorate. Truly an astounding feat – academics leading a political movement for liberty! Amazing. In the USA, an academic-led party would more likely be something like the Green Party! Liberty and sovereignty can draw people from varied areas and walks of life. More on this in time to come. I think this quote from the Times article shows the potential reach of the new party:
One new member, Martina Tigges-Friedrichs, said she belonged to the Free Democratic Party in the state of Lower Saxony for 15 years before she quit this year, frustrated that the pro-business party had abandoned its principles. She said she was attracted to Alternative for Germany because of the prominence of its founders, and because the current center-right government had put the country on a dangerous financial course.
“We keep giving out more and more money when we have so many problems here at home,” said Ms. Tigges-Friedrichs, who runs two hotels and a cafe in Bad Pyrmont.
That is part of the point. The new party also calls for a simpler tax code, immigration and energy subsidy reform so that the best immigrants are chose to come into Germany. No one thinks the AfD will gain the five percent needed to get seats in the Bundestag but I do. I think they will! I can’t wait until September!
On that North Korea thing, more on that…
Article written by: Elwood "Sandy" Sanders
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
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