Europe is pinballing
In England, Labour wins in the famous landslide. Macron comes out of his experiment with a smashed face. Holland simply renounces democracy completely and does something. Meanwhile, overseas, a formerly powerful man is stuttering his way around, sticking out of his collar in a nice, slim way. The all-powerful clown stands next to him and wonders how stupid his opponents are. And Julian tells us what we want to hear. Will it stay that way, asks Kai Blasberg?
For a long time I have been asking myself: do they all know as little about France as I do? I mean, I drive through there year after year when I go to Spain with my wife and poodles. And yes, the motorways are two classes better than the German ones. Because of privatization and so on. But it costs a lot. I know that there is Macron, who I sometimes find great and then extremely arrogant. And the Prime Minister who resigned today is gay. Before that, it was a woman whose name I don't know. Another woman, her name is Le Pen, is well known because she has always been there because of her father and she never wins when everyone says she will now. She is basically the BVB of politicians. Then there is baguette, red wine, cheese, Mbappé. He made political statements and is probably the real reason for this column today. I always liked Paris. It is refreshingly different from any other capital. The language? Well, yes. I can count to ten. We all assumed that we would be able to continue enjoying the horror of the right-wing slide this afternoon; and now this. Jean-Pierre is voting for the unexpected. Two thirds of those who are allowed to vote are voting. What is called erosion in Germany is record turnout in France. Of these two thirds, two thirds are not voting for right-wing radicals. Or should I say right-wing extremists? You run out of words. Even Uli Wickert is of no help. He is really old now, but he has to do because he is Francophile. But he also says Muslim. Live on phoenix. They broadcast after the polls closed and I wonder why neither the English nor the French have shown the slightest bit of interest that a US election aroused a year earlier.
Still care packages in their hearts?
A few years ago, the election results in Paris and London would have created feelings of the 1970s. And Poland, Sweden, and yes: Germany too. Nominally, we have a progressive government. But you see: this feeling of ideological superiority no longer seems to be there. Ideologies seem to be out. A reasonable thinker no longer believes that any of the movements have the power to really change anything. Is that also down to us voters? Are societies now actually splitting into two camps: those who have? And those who don't. And who will never have anything? And that this hopelessness and the pure intention of just getting by somehow is disillusioning. Or is it part of the truth that figures like Le Pen are always painted as devils so that everything stays as it is. At least for the establishment. Because let's be honest: Madame has long since reached her zenith. Even in revolution-friendly France, there don't seem to be that many right-wingers who can't be contained in time. The Uli Wickerts will now warn of a standstill because Jean-Pierre doesn't know coalitions. And the walls will be raised again until a new president is elected, on which the devil marine can be painted. Yesterday, television showed summer interviews, a ritual that has fallen out of the world and is unimaginative in its broadcasting:
this time two devils. The master painter from Görlitz and the banker from Gütersloh. One after the other, at the right time, they were allowed to dump their lies on the people. More or less unchallenged. Because even in the 11th year of the misanthropists of the AfD, German journalists can't think of anything to say about these arsonists. To stay with the image: try the good old "fighting fire with fire". At the moment it's kickboxing versus karate.
In France, they did it better: EVERYONE stood up against Marine and her young heartthrob Jordan. And the Democrats won. Hands down. So the voters can do it. Now the simulation should be tried out. It works in French football too. They have been highly praised for ages, but they don't bring their beauty to the markets of the stadiums. They just pretend they can. They still win everything. In five games without scoring a field goal. With an ice-cold face. And a nose guard. Meanwhile, the youngster Julian sits crying at press conferences and tries to explain how beautiful everything was. Are the French now taking away our effectiveness too?
At the last federal election, we naive aesthetes raved that the best in the traffic light system was now of social democracy, the eco-movement and bourgeois liberalism. A left-liberal France, a working-class England and the red-green-yellow Germany would be an "entende raison", an alliance of reason that could make Europe a real partner in this world that is running out of control.
"I hear the message well, but I lack faith." Let me quote Goethe. And for the sake of parity, the French philosopher Blaise Pascal: "The present is never our purpose; the past and the present are our means; the future alone is our purpose." That screams of the Englishman John Locke: "The strength of our conviction is no proof of its correctness." As if he had known Gareth Southgate.
07/09/24
*Kai Blasberg worked in the private media in Germany for 40 years
Still care packages in their hearts?
A few years ago, the election results in Paris and London would have created feelings of the 1970s. And Poland, Sweden, and yes: Germany too. Nominally, we have a progressive government. But you see: this feeling of ideological superiority no longer seems to be there. Ideologies seem to be out. A reasonable thinker no longer believes that any of the movements have the power to really change anything. Is that also down to us voters? Are societies now actually splitting into two camps: those who have? And those who don't. And who will never have anything? And that this hopelessness and the pure intention of just getting by somehow is disillusioning. Or is it part of the truth that figures like Le Pen are always painted as devils so that everything stays as it is. At least for the establishment. Because let's be honest: Madame has long since reached her zenith. Even in revolution-friendly France, there don't seem to be that many right-wingers who can't be contained in time. The Uli Wickerts will now warn of a standstill because Jean-Pierre doesn't know coalitions. And the walls will be raised again until a new president is elected, on which the devil marine can be painted. Yesterday, television showed summer interviews, a ritual that has fallen out of the world and is unimaginative in its broadcasting:
this time two devils. The master painter from Görlitz and the banker from Gütersloh. One after the other, at the right time, they were allowed to dump their lies on the people. More or less unchallenged. Because even in the 11th year of the misanthropists of the AfD, German journalists can't think of anything to say about these arsonists. To stay with the image: try the good old "fighting fire with fire". At the moment it's kickboxing versus karate.
In France, they did it better: EVERYONE stood up against Marine and her young heartthrob Jordan. And the Democrats won. Hands down. So the voters can do it. Now the simulation should be tried out. It works in French football too. They have been highly praised for ages, but they don't bring their beauty to the markets of the stadiums. They just pretend they can. They still win everything. In five games without scoring a field goal. With an ice-cold face. And a nose guard. Meanwhile, the youngster Julian sits crying at press conferences and tries to explain how beautiful everything was. Are the French now taking away our effectiveness too?
At the last federal election, we naive aesthetes raved that the best in the traffic light system was now of social democracy, the eco-movement and bourgeois liberalism. A left-liberal France, a working-class England and the red-green-yellow Germany would be an "entende raison", an alliance of reason that could make Europe a real partner in this world that is running out of control.
"I hear the message well, but I lack faith." Let me quote Goethe. And for the sake of parity, the French philosopher Blaise Pascal: "The present is never our purpose; the past and the present are our means; the future alone is our purpose." That screams of the Englishman John Locke: "The strength of our conviction is no proof of its correctness." As if he had known Gareth Southgate.
07/09/24
*Kai Blasberg worked in the private media in Germany for 40 years
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