71–80 of 226 posts
Organisers of the protests estimated that there were 1,4 million participants in Germany over the weekend.[1] German police had a more conservative estimate of 900k participants.[2] In the city where I'm staying (Cologne) 80k people showed up. That's almost one in ten for a city of a million. That is impressive. It's easy to say these numbers are not large enough for a country of 83 million. What has to be taken into…
Meanwhile the AfD is looking to at least double their share of the votes perhaps to almost 25% of the electorate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_G...
Speaking only for myself with no sense of authority: there's something in the air that I'm not the only one feeling. Something very subtle seems off. The water is a little hotter, but subtly enough to say "nah it's not like that". The way I see it, tens of thousands took to the streets to make damn sure it won't be like that on their watch. The AfD has gotten louder and stronger last year, and it's reaching further a…
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man, these comments are something. hacker news is scary now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Final wakeup call for the other parties.
So they will finally give the people what they ask for? And stop doing what the people dislike?
How is that possible, when the people themself are divided?
For example with weapon support for Ukraine:
"Some 44% believe sending Leopard 2 battle tanks to Kyiv is the wrong decision, according to the results of a survey by pollster YouGov published on Sunday.
At least 41% support the German government as it plans to send the first of 18 tanks to Ukraine "
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/majority-of-germans-against-...
And with immigration it is similar. Quite some literally want to protect germany as a white nation that speaks only german - but many don't. Many are sceptical of arab troublemakers, but otherwise like a diverse society.
So where is the solution fitting everyone? What can the politicians do, to make everyone happy?
Do the reverse of these protests ever happen? Are there some days where right wing people protest with similar numbers?
As someone who doesn't live in Europe and never set foot in Europe, it seems like the #1 issue is immigration - both legal and refugees. Am I correct?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/22/crisis...
"Germany is the only country where immigration is clearly in the lead when people are asked which crisis bothers them most when they think about the future. Estonians and Poles are focused on the war in Ukraine. Italy and Portugal see the economic crisis as their biggest threat. Spain, Britain and Romania are the countries where Covid-19 is seen as the biggest trauma. And in France and Denmark the climate emergency is considered the most important crisis."
Speaking only for myself with no sense of authority: there's something in the air that I'm not the only one feeling. Something very subtle seems off. The water is a little hotter, but subtly enough to say "nah it's not like that". The way I see it, tens of thousands took to the streets to make damn sure it won't be like that on their watch. The AfD has gotten louder and stronger last year, and it's reaching further a…
The "good" options are doing what their funders demand them to do and that is keeping the current system limping onward. The opposition, the far right ones are however funded by new sources, shady ones. Their platform is thin as ice, there is no substance behind their loud slogans. But the slogans they use, do reach peoples heads. If the current leaders are not able to take these points for them selves and gain back…
Dismissing the other side of the political spectrum instead of addressing their problems is exactly how we keep getting into this mess.
That's not a lot, in a country of millions. We do much more in France, every year. And it's been showing diminishing returns, as the government realized it could just not listen, and nothing bad would happen. In fact, it's a drop in the sea, compared to the rising casual xenophobia I can notice with my German acquaintances, friends, and even family. Medias, general discussions, and overall atmosphere is not going in…
These have been large protests for Germany. No need to talk it down. Over the weekend about one million people demonstrated.
I wanted to convey that compared to the wave of discontent that is taking Germany by storm, it's at best step in the opposite direction.
Germans are not known to be proud, but they are. And right now, a lot of them feel they don't get what they deserve.
Protesting against people showing how unhappy they are is unlikely to bring the change we wish it would.