Requiem for a country
LEO ENSEL
As the saying goes, there is no bad thing that does not bring with it something good: the very narrow failure of the BSW, Sahra Wagenknecht's Union, the only anti-war party in the country, to break the five percent barrier (which keeps it out of parliament) has at least spared us one Minister Habeck and other permanently offended Green whiners in the new federal government. In future, the pitiful stuttering and cringe-inducing mutterings will no longer be sold to us as the work of great statesmen. But that is also the only really positive aspect of this "decisive election" - this hackneyed expression is really appropriate now.
The unified party of the sergeants chusqueros
Exactly three years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany has elected a parliament that is nothing other than an all-party coalition – or rather a unified party – of arms dealers, capital destroyers and warmongers. With the departure of politicians such as Sahra Wagenknecht, Sevim Dağdelen and others (very few) from the Bundestag, the parliament loses the last consistent voices in favour of ending the war in Ukraine as soon as possible, of a new policy of détente and of a peaceful future for our continent. (The fact that, from today's perspective, these professional politicians might have fooled themselves by breaking away from the Left Party – Die Linke – is another matter entirely…)
In view of the astronomical sums of money that will now be spent on prolonging the killings and deaths in Ukraine, on the insane rearmament of the Bundeswehr and the European Union, and on an increasingly “bellicose” society, BlackRock’s next Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his close Social Democrat partner Boris Pistorius can now exclaim, like Kaiser Wilhelm in the summer of 1914: “I no longer know parties, I only know Germans!”
After all, their "opposition" in parliament consists exclusively of parties that (like the Greens and the Left Party – Die Linke) call for "restrictions on the use of Western weapons against legitimate military targets on Russian territory be lifted immediately» and/or are in favour of reintroducing compulsory military service and increasing the arms budget far beyond the famous two percent of gross domestic product.
There is really no more comfortable way to lambast the much vaunted "Zeitenwende" (the historic "turning point"), including the new deployment of medium-range missiles and cruise missiles exclusively in our country next year!
Self-inflicted collapse
Unfortunately, it would be all too easy to blame our country's voluntary self-resignation solely on ominous and dark hidden forces. The fact is that in this extremely tense geopolitical situation, "peace" has only been the most important issue of all. for less than five percent of citizens eligible to vote. Journalist Patrik Baab summed it up like this on election night: «The Germans did not vote that night for stagnation, but for defeat. A people is heading towards its own downfall.». Nothing more to add.
Leo Ensel is a conflict researcher and intercultural expert specializing in the post-Soviet space and Central and Eastern Europe. In the 1980s he made a significant contribution to the West German peace movement with his book about the human inability to adequately fear the potential self-destruction of humanity. He has investigated the reciprocal images of West and East Germans in the early years after reunification, overcoming false narratives in the new West-East conflict, de-escalation and the restoration of trust.
