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This article in the Economist following the state election in Berlin, says it shows Merkel and the CDU as still the only likely option to form a new coalition in the 2017 federal elections. Even though six parties emerged in the Berlin election- the left parties SPD and Die Linke, the Greens,CDU, AfD, FDP- the situation is so fragmented that the CDU still remains the leading party nationwide. The Economist points out that a Greens and left parties coalition as in Thuringia is not an option at the federal level, because most Germans are not in favor of a SPD, left party Die Linke, and Greens coalition at the national level. The opposition from the CSU inside the CDU-CSU parties to Merkel's refugee policy,  with Seehofer calling for a numerical limit to refugees, is it says presents the only real challenge to Merkel. Yet Merkel has already tackled that problem, as the new refugee numbers are dropping dramatically. and Merkel has already pointed out that the refugee crisis came when she and her government were caught unprepared. By taking the right steps to assuage voter sentiment as she has deftly done throughout her terms in office, staying close to what voters generally accept as the best way forward, a year from now Merkel and the CDU may as she says be seen as having taken actions that best reflect Germany's interests in the long term. ...

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A disservice by DW.com to conservative Julia Klockner  when Europe and the US are moving in a conservative direction, and people have lost patience with illegal migration and lack of integration in society. Julia Klockner is Bundestag president and is close to chancellor Merz. She is a senior politician of the CDU, from Rhineland Palatinate. Her father is a wine grower in that region. She started out as a journalist and from 2010 -2022 led the CDU in her home state. She has taken a position on the destabilization of German politics by the AfD party after Merkel's failures in illegal immigration that has stretched public resources. Similar to the premier of Denmark Mette Fredericksen, a Social Democrat, Klockner as a Christian Democrat understands that illegal migration is bad for social cohesion in Germany. Klocker and Merz both understand that the public's patience has been tested to the limits by millions of illegal migrants as in the US. Her view early on in Merkel's cabinet was that legal immigrants have to be integrated into German society. She sees no need for AfD, when the CDU/CSU conservatives in Germany and in Bavaria can prevent illegal migrants from entering the country. She says-"You don't have to vote AfD for what you want. There is a democratic alternative: The CDU."  ...

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The CDU party selects Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as its next leader. Chancellor Merkel favored the state premier of Saarland, a small German state, as the next leader. Merkel told CDU delegates that the party was not the party it was in 2002 and praised the work of Karrenbauer in Saarland, in an indirect endorsement of the female candidate over Mr. Merz who favored taking the party to its conservative roots.  Merkel has pushed the CDU to the centre and sometimes to the left in an effort to sideline the Social Democrats, which worked till the migration and refugee influx led to a fragmentation in German political parties and decline in support for CDU. The election was close with Karrenbauer winning in the second ballot by a bare majority. Merkel plans to stay in office till 2021 and the party post in the hands of a close ally helps Merkel consolidate her legacy. Merkel made Karrenbauer Gerneral Secretary in 2018 in a move that was intended to move her to the top position. ...

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Cem Ozdemir, Baden-Wurttemberg State Premier, with roots in Turkey born in Stuttgart area (parents came to Germany in the 1960's). Cem Ozdemir is exceptional in his popularity in an affluent German state. The 2026 state election campaign was run with focus on Ozdemir, and he did well in his debate with the CDU leader in the state. He led his party to over 30% of the vote. A third of working class voters gave the AfD their vote and it made it to 19% of the vote. The CDU came in second with a half percentage point below the Greens at 29.5%. Ozdemir was pre school educator and has a degree in psychology before he joined the Greens party. Under Chancellor Schroeder he was domestic spokesperson, and under Chancellor Scholz in 2024 he was Agriculture Minister.

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The CDU runs the state of Baden-Wurttemberg (Stuttgart, Tubingen) in a coalition with the Greens. The Greens premier is retiring. Merz is hoping for a win in the state in an upcoming election. The AfD is polling at 20%, SPD is losing ground.

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Fitch Ratings analyst Charlene Chu tracks unreported debt in China's shadow banking system. She is doing this after moving to China in 2004, following work at the New York Fed. She was first alerted to the increase in unreported private debt when a banker disclosed to her at a meeting that he was pushing loans off the bank's books by repackaging it as securities and calling it wealth management products. She sees shadow lending in the banking system as a way to extend credit beyond the bank's government quota and not disclose questionable loans. The growth in private debt is alarming, much of it unreported. China undercounted private debt by 28% or 1.3 trillion yuan ($212 billon ) in the first half of 2010. In July 2011, the People's Bank of China added many of this type of off-balance sheet type of lending to its figures, following Chu's example. Her figures are still higher and she says conservative estimates. Fitch Ratings puts China's private sector debt at 214% of China's GDP as of June 2013, from 129% in 2008.The central bank's estimate is about 20% lower. Shadow lending soared after China increased lending in 2009 as part of the Stimulus policies. ...

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Polls show support for the two main parties in Germany, the CDU and the SDU, Christian Democrats and Social Democrats at new lows. Part of the reason is that the Social Democrats have not reflected their working class base, and the Christian Democrats have dissensions going forward with the CSU. The AfD is stronger in east Germany as the situation evolves with smaller parties having more support.

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It took 12 hours after Maduro's capture for Berlin to respond. Chancellor Merz of the CDU and Lars Klingbeil of the SPD Deputy Chancellor are in a coalition government, with the SPD taking a different and cautious view than the CDU. Both agree that the Maduro government was illegitimate and about human rights abuses.The final statement said the Maduro government was illegitimate and had human rights abuses, and welcomed the change. It also was cautious in its wording as it was concerned about implications for international law. No mention was made of drug trafficking to the European Union from Venezuela and its impact on European society as a concern, but this must be a concern that European leaders have. European leaders have failed to bring this up which can be mystifying for people outside Europe knowing the increasing damage drug trafficking is doing to European society, including France, Italy and Germany.

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Overall the European parliament elections shows the EPP with CDU in Germany winning over 30 percent of the vote, the SPD 14 percent and the Afd 15 percent, Greens 12 percent. In terms of next EU government the EPP, Socialists and Renew have 59.1% of the vote, and with the Greens included 62.6% of the vote of 360 million EU voters. The European parliament elections show the Renaissance Party that includes Macron En Marche and FDP in Germany losing 23 seats, with some seats going to Conservatives and the ID. Conservatives and Reformists right alliance led by Meloni of Italy including National Rally in France added 4 seats, ID of Denmark adding 9 seats. The Socialists including SPD lost 4 seats and the European People's Party including CDU/CSU led by Leyen won the most seats adding 10 seats. Greens/EFA lost 18 seats as the other parties adopted green energy planks. Leyen says the centrist parties held off challenges from the right and left parties. EPP of CDU's  Leyen has 186 seats, Socialists of SPD's Scholz 135, RE of Macron En Marche and FDP in Germany 79 seats, ECR of Meloni in Italy and National Rally in France 73 seats, ID of Denmark 58 seats, Greens of Germany's Baerbock 53 seats.  ...

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The Christian Democrats coalition with the Free Democrats fails to win in the German state of Lower Saxony by one seat in a close election. The CDU won 36% of the vote, the FDP 9.9%, the SPD 32.6%, the Greens 13.6%. Merkel's CDU and the CSU is showing 40% support nationally, the SPD 23%. The next election is in Berlin.

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Ms. Annegret Kramp-Krarrenbauer, elected leader of the CDU party in 2018 with the support of Angela Merkel, will not run for chancellor in next years election and will resign from her position by the end of the year. She will continue as Germany's defense minister. After losses for the CDU in recent elections and the embarrassment of local CDU leaders in Thuringia supporting the far right AfD, AKK as she is known decided to step down. Angela Merkel has decided not to run for chancellor again. Germany is set to chair the EU in the second half of 2020, and Merkel is no longer seen as a leader of influence. The Nationalist Alternative for Germany AfD has gained votes in recent elections following the 2015-2016 migrant crisis, with large numbers of refugees from North Africa and Arab world landing in Greece and Turkey and walking to Hungary, Austria and Germany. Merkel's handling of the crisis with acceptance of a million refugees in 2015-2016 unsettled European and German politics. Why? One way of looking at it is that in the same way that the U.S. took in Chinese imported goods ending in the Trump tariffs war, at some point it just becomes too big to handle. That ended up at $1 billion a day in imports from China when president Trump called it off and accused Obama Democrats, Bush Republicans, of betraying the country. Putting it into perspective Germany with one fourth of the population of the U.S. took in about twice the number of refugees in just one year 2015-2016 that the U.S. took in 10 years 2005-2015. The U.S. took in 675,000 immigrants between 2005-2015. This is as if the U.S. took in something like 20 million immigrants in a short period of 1 year on an equivalent basis- though the cultural impact is even greater in a nation like Germany that is like Japan an historically immigrant averse nation. All this happened too quickly for Germany to handle for its fragile cultural fabric. Much of the initial outpouring of support and positive sentiment came from the sense of having gone through World War II and the refugees in that and the early post war period, the need to return in the same spirit support Germany had received. Over time it eroded support for the Christian Democratic Union and Merkel. That Merkel could have done this is itself a small miracle. Now the rebuilding has to begin. Adenauer's CDU and the socialist SPD party of Willy Brandt now have less than 50% support, only with the Greens Party do they make up 50%. The question now is can the CDU, and the SPD which has fallen to 14% in elections, make it back and what kind of future makeup political parties will have in Germany, how the social fabric can be restored. AKK's achievement is to mend relations between the liberal Merkel wing of the CDU and conservatives from Bavaria (CSU) over immigration.  Candidates for CDU leadership are Armin Laschet, Jens Spahn, and Friedrich Merz. Laschet premier of North Rhine-Westphalia has Merkel's support. Looking back too much attention was taken up by the euro crisis, and too little was done in the areas of infrastructure, inequality gaps, education, child care, under Merkel's leadership and of the preceding SPD years, much like what happened under Bush and Obama administrations in the U.S. where wars, economic crises led to neglect on issues that affect lives of ordinary working families. ...

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NATO members except Spain agree to spend 5% on defense, 3.5% on military and 1.5% on defense industry. Germany makes purchase of 35 F-35 fighter aircraft from the US for $8.2 billion in 2025 to be fitted with cruise missiles from Norway. Defense minister Pistorius says Germany has moved with "supersonic speed" on defense capabilities. This a big change from Scholz. New CDU chancellor in coalition with the SPD is Friedrich Merz who with a popular former defense minister Pistorius from the Scholz coalition and the new SPD finance minister in the Merz coalition Lars Kingbeil, is changing the way Germany looks at investing for the future. It has embraced defense of Europe and modernization of German infrastructure. German federal elections gives the coalition of Merz the 28.6 votes percentage of CDU/CSU in addition the SPD's 16.4% for governing with 45% of the vote, and additional 11.6% of SPD's ally the Green Party which supports it outside the coalition for total 57%. For this reason it is a coalition government with real clout to get things done for Germany's modernization. Much of the media focus is on AfD's far right 20.8% but this has been offset by the Left Parties gaining 14% of the vote in the formerly communist East (GDR) where the AfD is based. Thus about 60% of German voters support Merz/Lingbeil/Pistorius for some far reaching action by Merz well into 2030, for the first time since reunification in 1990. To add to this most of Europe including Germany under Merz has embraced a tough line on illegal migration similar to DJT in US so that far right AfD gains from discontent have reached their high point at 20.8%.   ...

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This exceptional report in DW.com covers a topic rarely tackled directly. How does society and the government tackle the growing problem of anorexia among young women, and the way advertising has promoted this idea through unrealistic even dangerous standards of beauty. Regulations in France prohibit underweight women being employed as models. Spain has introduced similar legislation. This is one of the many problems that are tackled on a bipartisan basis by the CDU, CSU and the SPD parties as a coalition government is formed. The head of the SPD parliamentary group, Karl Lauterbach, says this is an illness with a hgih mortality rate for women in Germany. The CSU agrees with this and new legislation is being planned to require realistic standards in advertising and in hiring of women in advertising.

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The German state elections will be conducted under new election laws- a voter over 16 years old votes for one of 70 constituencies in the first state election in Baden-Wurttemberg and also votes for a party that helps determine the distribution of seats by party in the state parliament. The CDU candidate Manuel Hagel is leading by small margin over the Greens candidate Cem Ozdemir. This is the first state in 7 state elections in 2026 with cities of Stuttgart and Tubingen, Munich.

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Armin Laschet is an affable journalist from Aachen, Germany. He is premier in North Rhine Westphalia in a coalition with the FDP. He is seen as a likable person who can win over others. Support from the Greens or the FDP in a future coalition is seen as one way to form a government. He was part of the Pizza Connection, a group of Christian Democrats and Greens who met in the wine cellar of an Italian restaurant in Bonn, to pull together people in areas that they agree. He has the dual qualities of being on Merkel's side in the crises she faced and also having a nuanced approach to tough issues to bring together different people.