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ISSUES....
Inside, confidential and off the record
No surprise
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Ms. Merkel and the CDU won the federal elections in Germany yesterday. The only real surprise was that the Social
Democrats fares as poorly as they did and that the Free Democrats did far better. The results are still a bit preliminary, but it appears that the Christian Democrats won 239 seats in the Parliament this time compared to 226 last time. The Free Democrats won 93 seats compared to 61 last time, and the Social Democrats were rather humiliated in winning only 146 seats compared to 221 before! Thus, the CDU can form a huge majority government in alliance with the Free Democrats… the most pro-capitalist of the German political parties and the one we would have supported were we German and could we have voted. The winner then is not really Ms. Merkel, but is instead Mr. Guido Westerwelle, the leader of the Free Democrats.
Interestingly, the Free Democrats saw their public support rise to 14.6% of the total votes cast, up 4.8% from their previous total, while the CDU saw its support fall a stunning 11.2% to 23.0% of the votes. Ms. Merkel’s CDU got 33.8% of the votes cast, down 1.4% from what they got in the last election.
The only sad circumstance is that the votes lost by the Social Democrats went not to the Free Democrats nor to the Christian Democrats but to the Greens and the Left Party whose share of the votes cast rose, in aggregate, 5.8% to 22.6%. Thus, Germany’s Parliament will be more dichotomous than in the past; the Grand Coalition will give way to a Gross Argumentative parliament instead. It will make for great debates and great anger. Indeed, it may even be fun.
- Dennis Gartman/ The Gartman Letter / 09 28 09 /
- For more on interesting comments, you can subscribe to The Gartman Letter by contacting Dennis Garthman: Phone - Fax: 757 238 9546 or email : dennis@thegartmanletter
Petroleumworld News 09/29/09
ISSUES.... Inside, confidential and off the record
Is an independent journalist effort from Petroleumworld, on Inside, Confidential and Off The Record Information, its views are not necessarily those of Petroleumworld
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