It’s not about immigration or asylum seekers … it’s a ugly power struggle between CDU and CSU. No modern day Anschluss necessary … open border between Austria and Bavaria in the political mindset and landscape. To the detriment of all of (Western) Europe. Germany and Austria closer to the Visegrad states?

More below the fold …

Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies CSU threaten rightward shift | DW – Sept. 27, 2017 |

Among the many earthquakes in Germany’s political landscape triggered by the German election was the destruction of a decades-old dictum once uttered by the Christian Social Union’s (CSU) most famed leader Franz Josef Strauss: “There must be no democratically legitimate party right of the CSU.”

Sunday’s devastating results for Germany’s conservative parties seemed to show that the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a populist far-right force across Germany has forever buried that notion. The CSU, Bavarian allies to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) but traditionally a little more conservative, scored its lowest ever result on Sunday, with just under 39 percent of the vote in its home state — over 10 percentage points down on 2013.

Media commentators were quick to draw two conclusions — that CSU leader Horst Seehofer‘s position was looking very precarious, and the CSU will have to shift to the right to win back its lost voters — particularly ahead of the Bavarian state election next fall. For now, the CSU holds an absolute majority in Bavaria, the only German state with a single-party government.

Seehofer power grab is revenge against Merkel for influx of Syrian asylum seekers

○ German election 18 Sept. 2005 – 16th Bundestag
○ Countdown Germany: Day -36 [Aug. 13, 2005]
○ Edmund Stoiber, a thorn in the side of Chancellor Angela Merkel, steps down | DW – Jan. 2007 |

The role of identity politics and the century-old battle of Christians vs Muslims …

○ In Munich, Provocation in a Symbol of Foreign Faith | NY Times – Dec. 2006 |
○ German state orders crosses mounted in government buildings | DW – May 2018 |

Pushing Angela Merkel out, U.S. president Trump puts on the pressure on German carmakers and threat to pull out the U.S. Armed Forces. A welcome gesture, looking forward to the next NATO Summit!

○ Trump’s Auto Tariffs Threat Targets Heart of German Economy | Bloomberg – May 2018 |

○ Donald Trump rails against German defense spending shortfall | DW – June 2018|

○ NATO Command Centers in Europe for troops build-up at Russian border| DW – June 2018|
○ Stoltenberg interview coming NATO Summit July 2018 – concerns alliance unity

[Cross-posted from European Tribune – where dissent is NOT troll rated!]

oaquabonita – the obsessive heckler here, here, here and here.

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