Retirement is uncharted territory for all of us, but you can do it

By Milan Röttger | Hamburg has elected a new citizenry. While the SPD loses votes, but remains the strongest force, the Greens win massively and occupy second place and the CDU gets another memo missed by the voters. The election in Hamburg is the worst result in 70 years. This could keep the conservative parties' camp below 25 percent. The events in Thuringia in particular have probably contributed to the CDU losing significant votes.

Thuringia was only the last drop that caused the barrel to overflow. What the CDU has done in recent years cannot be beaten in terms of missteps. And this drama, into which the conservatives have ridden themselves, has a leading actress: Angela Merkel. The former "Chancellor of Hearts" has borne the greatest responsibility for the decline of the former People's Party in recent years. In addition, a party emerged through its euro rescue policy, which today can count many former CDU voters among its entourage. The AfD was particularly popular due to its catastrophic decisions in 2015, when the wave of refugees peaked. She seems to be of little interest that Merkel did not comply with applicable law with her refugee policy - she continues to believe that the measures she has taken are correct.

But since the Thuringian scandal at the latest, Angela Merkel is no longer politically viable. After Thomas Kemmerich was elected as the new prime minister, Merkel stepped in from Africa to state politics and called Kemmerich's democratic election "unforgivable." After that, the whole of Thuringia was literally incapacitated and political decision-making authority was transferred to the federal parties. In addition, she also let the Federal Government's Eastern Commissioner resign from her own party because he congratulated Thomas Kemmerich on his election via Twitter. This not only allowed Merkel to interfere completely unauthorized in things that she cannot influence, but also showed how she interprets the definition of democracy: democracy only if the results correspond to her own taste. The Chancellor seems to have a real problem with making decisions.

Of course, the lost election can be put into perspective by the fact that today only a maximum of two percent of all eligible voters voted in Hamburg and that this can only minimally reflect the overall German voting behavior. But the fact that the CDU is now showing significant losses in the fourteenth election in a row cannot be ignored. In addition, the constellation of Hamburg in the Federal Council remains unchanged with today's election. If Angela Merkel continues her desolate policy until the next Bundestag election in September 2021, she could not only leave her office as outlaw chancellor, but also cause further damage to her own party for over a year. Not surprisingly, a petition to Angela Merkel's immediate resignation was launched a few days ago. And the image of the federal government coincides with that of the leading chancellor. Added to this is the lack of authority of some cabinet members.

I find this development really a shame and very disappointing. It was primarily through Angela Merkel that I discovered my fascination with politics almost five years ago and, despite our differences of opinion regarding refugee policy, I respected it. I found her standing impressive and that's why I defended her for a long time against right and left critics. But their behavior in the past few months has finally forced me to rethink. A Federal Chancellor is unworthy of her trampling on the basic democratic order, as in Thuringia. The CDU owes her and her lackeys at the federal level a colossal breach of trust with the German people and the strengthening of a new political movement that snatches people away from the CDU election for election. It is the CDU that is preventing the entire party from being readjusted by continuing to want to know everything under its control. If it remains at the forefront of German politics, election debacles like the one in Hamburg for the CDU will repeat themselves over and over again. It takes the largest part in the demise of the last People's Party. The party of Konrad Adenauer or Ludwig Erhard did not deserve this. But this process can no longer be stopped if the CDU is to be saved. I can only hope that she will clear her post early and of her own free will, so that she is spared a possible humiliation of her person, if it is not already too late.

Source: Apollo News