Berlin is expressing doubt about the European Union’s ability to withstand the rise of nationalist parties and the pressure from the Trump administration. This unprecedented skepticism in Germany has raised fears of lasting weakening, or even the gradual marginalization, of Europe as it exists today.



True. But Merz could never disappoint me. He’s doing what’s expected of him. The last German gov — now THAT was a disappointment.
Scholz was ineffective, but he’s not the one for whom the invasion of Venezuela was very complex or who sees a migration problem in the Stadtbild. He enabled the FDP, but merz is enabling the AFD, so that feels like a tossup.
To be fair, the commenter you replied to never said that the previous government was worse. They just said they were disappointed in it, which I can fully understand.
And it is no surprise that merz and the CDU are acting that way. As they were assholes even before being elected.
Yeah, none of this is a surprise, sadly. The CDU is effective, but wants evil things; the SPD is better on the surface, but both ineffective and cowardly in the moment it counts; FPD are capitalists; AFD/FW are racist manipulators; and all of them are willing to sell Germany out to better themselves.
I’m not happy with the other parties, but I don’t see them as problematically, either because they’re less relevant or less corrupt (from what I can tell as an immigrant here for five years- I don’t know what the fuck BSW is about, for example, but I certainly don’t trust it).
The current day SPD isn’t ineffective nor cowardly, they are just good at faking tummy aches over implementing things that hurt the majority, but benefit the rich. Whenever there is an upcoming election, they’ll fake caring about the working class to get some votes, just to go back to their real neoliberal self when if they win.
Have a good look at German history and see who implemented the harshest social cutbacks in the post WW2 period.
It only was a disappointment to the stupid and the ignorantly naive.
The FDP was just doing FDP things, the SPD was just doing SPD things, and the Greens were just doing Greens things while pretending to have a bad tummy ache over some of the harsh decisions.
Just look at German history of the past 40 years, specifically which party did what in that period. You’ll find that everyone ever in power during that time always and reliably has done neoliberal redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top.
You’re right. It still feels more like a betrayal though when, say, a party which runs a campaign about peace and love turns out to be a psycho bloodsucking cheerleaders for genocide (eg the Greens).