A new President has been elected today. Prof. Horst Köhler will take over from Johannes Rau in July.
Köhler is an economy expert. He used to be the head of the International Monetary Fund and only stepped down from that function in order to be a candidate for the office of Germany's highest representative.
His opponent Prof. Gesine Schwan is an expert in Political Science. I am sure that both candidates would have served the country well.
Prof. Köhler outlined the issues important to him in his first speech as elected president. He stressed that Germany has to become a family friendly country, he stressed the importance to use Globalisation in order to fight poverty and injustice and furthermore he talked about the need for inner reforms. Germany will have to be transformed into a country of ideas.
(As a sidenote: Köhler did something uncommon for German politicians. He asked for God's blessing for the country.
Last year I criticised trends in US politics to utilize religion for politic goals.
I still hold true to this opinion. However, Prof. Köhler's plea for God's blessing had nothing political. In contrast to what I have criticised he never created the impression that God's blessing would favor Germany above all the other countries of the world.)
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5 comments:
"He stressed that Germany has to become a family friendly country"
>>Yes, I've read that Germany is facing quite a problem with regard to an aging populace and low birthrate, particularly in the former East.
And I believe Germany's economy needs a jumpstart. Is the German President in a position to influence the economy? Does he have any control over monetary or fiscal policy, within Germany or with the central EU banks?
If Germany were to relax immigration standards, I would consider immigrating after a few years of practice. Of all the places I've been, Berlin ranks at or near the top of the list. A very cool city.
I am sorry for the extra effort you have to do because of the new comment system installed by blogger. I mean that it requires registration.
However, I am curious who posted that comment above.
Anyway, the President does not have the power to decide on policies. That doesn't mean he is powerless, though. He voices his opinions in speeches and citizen forums.
He mediates between the parties. He will criticise partisan politics. That last thing is what we must really rest our hope in. Because partisan politics have blocked almost any progress in recent years.
The way our federalistic system is set up the "Bundesländer" (states) can block many decisions by the federal government. This may be a useful thought in general but the situation here has shown to be a mess:
The reason is that often times the opposition will have the majority among the Bundesländer. And then the opposition blocks legislature.
Now it is like this: Socialdemocrats and Green party in power (last election 2002) -> people are not content -> many elections since then in the Länder-> people vote for the opposition because of their discontent with the fed government -> hard times for the Bundestag (main parliament chamber who elected the chancellor, [meaning it is dominated by the fed gov parties]) to pass laws because about one third of all laws have to be accepted by the Bundesländer in order to pass.
Currently the issues affected by this are tax system reforms, social reforms and not to forget immigration law.
You will especially be interested in that last law: The conservative opposition (Christian democrats) want among other things pre-emptive custody for terror suspects included in the law.
Finally, the problem of constant blockades is being addressed by the politicians as well. There if a federalism commission which will propose a reform of the system probably by the end of the year.
Then, heated discussions will take place... my guess is that if we are lucky it will "only" (irony) take like 5 to 10 years until the proposition will be put into practise.
Das wäre ein schöner Beitrag für "Living in Germany" gewesen. ;) Hätte sicher auch gut meinen eigenen ergänzt oder kontrasiert. Schreib doch mehr für LiG (wir brauchen mehr Leute die schreiben ... ).
Melli
That post was me. The anonymous setting is default; so after I hit enter I realized I forgot to enter my name.
I know this to be fact (at least a few years ago) that it's easier for those with IT background to immigrate to Germany.
BTW, Tom, speaking abt immigration, I wish there'd be a passport exchange policy. = )
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