marks of war

Brief stop at the  Yorckbrücken to change trains. Strictly speaking I could have just taken the next train. Instead I used the opportunity for a quick wander and to collect today's blip. Berlin is full of history from all ages. The marks of World War 2 can be clearly seen in many places. Presumably shrapnel left these craters in the legs of one of the Yorckbrücken. These marks of war should remind us how destructive and wasteful wars are.


The European parliament elections have neatly split Germany into two colours: the states that belonged to West Germany are solidly black and states that belonged to East Germany are solidly blue. Black being the conservatives CDU/CSU and blue the fascist AfD. In between are islands of red (SPD) and Green which mark the big cities. Looking at who voted for the various parties is quite revealing: the old are voting predominantly traditional parties, CDU, CSU, SPD. All groups predominantly vote CDU/CSU although that is a close run for the youngest age group with the AfD. The AfD is doing very well in the young and middle aged groups. The workers are voting AfD, Well educated people vote Green. Both CDU/CSU and SPD lost many voters to the AfD, presumably that is the younger age groups turning away from the traditional parties. The Greens have lost a lot of voters to the CDU/CSU. The lurch to the right is clearly not a generational issue. The current government isn't doing well. The rhetorics that Greens are the enemy seem to stick. Although I blame a lot on the FDP who behave more like an opposition party than a coalition partner in government. In the end, it boils down to people believing the populists that promise them that nothing will change, that they can just keep going and that all the problems are due to others. Politics are deeply irrational, the real problems, planetary boundaries, demographic and technological change and the ever widening gap between rich and poor, and how they might be approached are not addressed. Grassroot organisations who are trying to raise these issues are criminalised and prosecuted by the state. The rich have presumably figured out that they rather arrange themselves with all these issues and the fascists than share some of their wealth and power.


On the plus side, turnout in my district was high with over 80% and solidly Green with 33.8% , even though they lost 11.2%.