Germany debuts new government + coalition contract

[Supersonic 49,376]

For the first time in 16 years, Germany will have a center-left government and a new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, whose job will be to fill the shoes of Angela Merkel, the woman who made Germany indispensable in Europe and the world.

After much anticipation, Mr. Scholz and his coalition partners from the progressive Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats stepped in front of the cameras on Wednesday to announce a 177-page governing deal they have negotiated under strict secrecy since the Sept. 26 election.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/world/europe/germany-new-governme
•nt.html

 

Most important policy changes that are in the coalition contract:

• Abolishing coal energy by 2030, expanding renewable engery sources by 80%
• Trying to get the country CO2 neutral by 2040
• Legalization of Cannabis
• Abolishing the outdated "Transexual law", which required high amounts of medical gatekeeping for trans people to be able to change their legal gender
• Reformed family laws that are inclusive of LGBTQ+ families
• National action plan to promote LGBTQ+ acceptance, a reparations fund for Intersex and Trans people who were either forced to transition into one gender as a child or kept from transitioning earlier in their lives because of restrictive legislation, fully criminalizing conversion therapy
• Abolishing the ban of gay men from donating blood
• Abolishing article 219a of German penal code, which criminalizes doctors informing patients about abortions and criminalizes doctors publically saying that they offer abortions
• Modifying the constitution to criminalize discrimination of one's sexual identity
• Reducing the age of voting to 16 years old
• Reducing the age of getting your trial driver's license to 16 years old 
• Increasing minimum wage to 12€ (from previously 9,60€)
• Financing state pensions by stock market speculation

 

[Magic Mike 2,771]

27 minutes ago, Supersonic said:

Reducing the age of voting to 16 years old
..
• Increasing minimum wage to 12€ (from previously 9,60€)

Ok 

wtf

this is amazing

Berlin has the same living cost as Lisbon, and in Lisbon… minimum wage is not even 5€ per hour…

[Eido 3,681]

Ohhhh it looks very good

Now I do wonder what will be possible to do 

[Queen Bitch 10,513]

Reducing the voting age to 16?

lol letting dumb teenagers who only care about tiktok decide who rules the country will go down SO well.

[littlepotter 76,616]

13 minutes ago, Queen Bitch said:

Reducing the voting age to 16?

lol letting dumb teenagers who only care about tiktok decide who rules the country will go down SO well.

Makes more sense than letting closed minded, regressive old people decide the fate of the new generation. 

[Dennis 8,391]

"Abolishing the ban of gay men from donating blood"

lmao what? Germany had such laws? I guess Merkel is overrated af

[Dennis 8,391]

1 hour ago, Queen Bitch said:

Reducing the voting age to 16?

lol letting dumb teenagers who only care about tiktok decide who rules the country will go down SO well.

sweetie, german 16 year olds =/= american 16 year olds

[Samma123 379]

18 minutes ago, Dennis said:

"Abolishing the ban of gay men from donating blood"

lmao what? Germany had such laws? I guess Merkel is overrated af

It was only allowed in the UK from this summer.... unfortunately I think it's a common law in most countries

[Supersonic 49,376]

1 hour ago, Queen Bitch said:

Reducing the voting age to 16?

lol letting dumb teenagers who only care about tiktok decide who rules the country will go down SO well.

Every human of every age, in every country around the world is a moron.

If the only reason to keep people in that age group from voting is that they're "stupid" and "care about Tik Tok" maybe then we should think about voting bans for people who are 40+ too, because they exponentially are more likely to believe that Bill Gates is trying to micro-chip the general public through covid vaccines and that supposedly the Rothschild family is planning the genocide of all white people. Both are stupid conspiracy theories.

Also just practically speaking, you know... data, science and reality, 16 & 17 year olds in Germany are a group of 1,48M people in the country. That's 1,23% of the overall population, it would increase the current pool of elligible voters by 2,45%. 

Just because you are elligible to vote, doesn't mean you will. Around 70% of all elligible 18 year olds voted in 2017, assuming that 16 and 17 year olds would see similar numbers, that would make for roughly 1,05M more actual voters. This would increase votes by only 2,27% which of course would be spread across the entire political spectrum, especially more to the splinter parties that young voters tend to gravitate towards. 

The overall impact of this change is so astronomically small, I don't get how anybody can realistically be offended over it, unless you're a f*cking "GET OFF MY LAWN" boomer.

[AndiGaga 7,236]

I voted liberals and i am sooo happy!

It is amazing and the first time in 16 years we have a government without the conservatives, so progess is finally possible

[Economy 52,907]

13 hours ago, Dennis said:

sweetie, german 16 year olds =/= american 16 year olds

Its 2021

 

U really think youth culture and tendencies vary THAT significantly from one Western Nation to another?

 

As some who lived in Portugal (and visists frequently still) and now lives in Canada, 2 Countries that once upon a time had very different cultures I can tell you with full confidence that differences in tendencies and mentalities (especially among younger generations especially) is becoming increasingly subtle and negligeable

[ItWasntLaauv 6,392]

Maybe they’ll get Germany’s crap COVID situation under control. As much as Angela’s an icon of sorts for the country, her and the other people in German government the past couple years have not done nearly enough in that area to get vaccines to the German population.

[RAMROD 117,268]

The promises all good and hope they can pull thru!

Also, Olaf sounds so easy on the mouth!

[TheSlash 14,539]

15 hours ago, Supersonic said:

Abolishing coal energy by 2030, expanding renewable engery sources by 80%

The important word in the coalition contract is "idealerweise" (ideally) in front of that statement.

Ideally, I win in the lottery tomorrow  .

[PartySick 172,982]

15 hours ago, Queen Bitch said:

Reducing the voting age to 16?

lol letting dumb teenagers who only care about tiktok decide who rules the country will go down SO well.

You would have an argument except we've seen the opposite is true

Teenagers and young adults care for the future enough to be socially and politically active while the 45+ crowd seems hell bent on maintaining a status quo that has nearly a billion starving people on a planet that's (sometimes literally) on fire 

I'll take a "dumb kid" over a conservative geezer any day tbh.

OT: That agenda  I'm extremely jealous of Germany right now

Xoxo, Florida man stuck in a backsliding democracy where we have two political choices: useless or evil