The parties take positions in the pre-election “arena”. Response from Berlin

The die was cast yesterday, Monday, in the Bundestag. Olaf Solz lost the confidence of the Parliament and asked President Steinmeier for its dissolution. The elections are already pre-agreed for February 23 and the chancellor candidates are ready to jump into the battle of the pre-election period.

Today, Tuesday, the Christian Union, the Social Democrats and the Greens present their election programs, the Liberals are still shaping it, while the Alternative for Germany and the Left have already submitted them to the citizens. As for Sarah Wagenknecht’s newly formed Alliance, it has not yet drawn up election positions, which are expected at the party’s congress in early January in Bonn.

CDU/CSU and AfD battle over immigration

At a first look at the points of the pre-election programs that have been made public, as presented by German print media and public television, the Christian Union under Friedrich Merz is based on two central areas: the restriction of immigration, with express deportations to Syria and Afghanistan, but also in a plan for the economic recovery of Germany, even maintaining the “option for nuclear energy”, mainly after pressure from heavy industry.

The election program presented today will however have to go through the party congresses of the two sister Christian parties, CDU and CSU. So far, however, the conditions they set for sending long-range missiles to Ukraine remain unclear, but in the past Friedrich Merz and other top officials of the Union have positioned themselves in favor of such an option.

On the other hand, the attitude of the Alternative for Germany, the second party in the opinion polls, is even more harsh and unworkable on immigration: it calls for mass deportations here and now and a general “stop” of new arrivals at the German border. At the same time, he supports the idea of ​​holding a referendum on Germany’s stay in the EU and favors abolishing the euro with a return to the German mark, as reported by the tagesschau.de website.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD), as seen before the election, turns a blind eye to Moscow, calls for the lifting of economic sanctions against Russia and rejects the continuation of military aid to Ukraine. The conference of the Alternative for Germany which will approve the pre-election program is expected in early January in Saxony.

SPD with “Fund for Germany”

Olaf Solz’s Social Democrats are essentially trying to differentiate themselves… from themselves, that is, from their governing self, which was voted down in the Bundestag yesterday. With a new “Fund for Germany” they want to give a boost to the necessary investments that they failed to implement in the framework of the three-party government with the Greens and the Liberals and they want to put up for discussion a possible reform of the constitutional rule of the “debt brake”. after all, it was this point that led to the head-on conflict with the non-members regarding the observance of fiscal discipline Liberals by Christian Lindner.

Beyond that, with regard to Ukraine, as Chancellor Olaf Solz constantly repeats, the party’s position on sending Taurus long-range missiles to Kiev remains unequivocally negative even before the election.

Greens… with a “green” agenda

As for the Greens, they are trying to return to their roots and the “green” agenda, which they de facto left behind in previous years as members of the coalition government. They want to continue the climate policy they could not implement, with more investment for a new climate policy with a social stamp, benefiting the weak.

The program of the Greens has a strong social character and is mainly directed towards the practical problems of the daily life of Germans: from health and education to environmental protection. That is, those fields which many citizens accuse them of forgetting as co-governors.

Left and Liberals with “classic recipes”

The electoral program of the Left (Die Linke), which is fighting to re-enter the next Parliament, also has a strong social sign, given that it is losing votes from Sarah Wagenknecht’s Alliance, which defected from the Linke, also “stealing” not only voters but also much of the traditional leftist agenda.

Social justice, support for low incomes, workers and families are at the center of the Left, while the Liberals who are also fighting for the 5% electoral threshold, choose to dialogue primarily with their traditional audience: German businessmen, of all levels. As for the “debt brake” rule, they continue on the same strict line: no deviations.

Sources: tagesschau.de, ZDF