this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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[–] federalreverse@feddit.org 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

And their opposition to the law wasn't transphobic (in the strict sense) in the first place but regarded abuse potential,

Or maybe they just hide their transphobia behind a thin veil of reasonable-sounding, legal arguments.

and marijuana legalization for instance

They won't.

They will use that topic for diversion in a pinch. It's mostly meaningless to them, but they'll happily jump at the chance to play off unemployed stoners against the hard-working middle class.

Also they'd fail before the constitutional court as outlawing it back then was not scrutinised by the same standards the constitutional court would apply now.

That's genuinely somehing for a judge to decide. And it's usually years before unconstitutional laws are revoked.

[xenophoobic rhetoric] Merz picked that up in a (stupid) attempt to get AfD votes.

Merz is also, genuinely, a bigot. In all possible respects: toward women, toward foreigners, toward gender and sexual minorities, towards non-Christians, ...

And there are also all manner of attempts to divide non-Germans within Germany, one of these is:

  • Good: "we paid for this person to come here and take care of that elderly lady".
  • Bad: "this person is now caring for an elderly lady, but they're worthless because they came as a refugee originally, they need to go"

Don't forget that all the rhetoric of the past 3 months, from the right-wing parties in particular, but also from SPD, and even the Greens with their "deportations to Afghanistan and Syria, sure, but only to a rational degree" ideas have already spooked people living here. We're also bound to see right-wing attacks rise further.

Merz and CxU are also not paragons of rationality. Everybody knew, and they must have known that they would only strengthen the Afd if they went all in on "bad foreigners" as the primary campaign topic. Really, 100% predictable. But they did. They used a terror attack to start the discussion and executed just as Merz had wanted to for 20 years, in fact. And they indeed lost 4.5% since the polls in November and the election last weekend, much of it to Afd. Primo job!

The CDU is captured by lobby interests and the lobby wants immigrant workers. Loudly. Vocally.

One of the interests of that lobby is actually undercutting pay those employees. That's significantly easier when your employees don't know about their rights, when they're not working legally, etc.

You mentioned SMEs. SMEs are not that important to CxU, even less to Merz. But they look good as figureheads, so they get some breadcrumbs, and lots of mentions in speeches. And they're told to grow.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Or maybe they just hide their transphobia behind a thin veil of reasonable-sounding, legal arguments.

That's paranoia, not analysis, also, the CDU is too big to keep such a conspiracy secret. It'd rather look like the AfD's attempts to not look fascist. Also, they'd be facing opposition from the churches to... capture a sentiment that doesn't really exist outside of a couple of rabid people noone will tear away from the AfD, anyway? To discriminate against one of the first groups of people the Nazis persecuted?

They will use that topic for diversion in a pinch. It’s mostly meaningless to them, but they’ll happily jump at the chance to play off unemployed stoners against the hard-working middle class.

True, still those topics are a dime a dozen and first they'd have to actually desire a ruckus. Right now is the absolute worst time for that, they want unity and stability to a) face the existing geopolitical threats and b) look better than the traffic light and c) don't know whether they realise that but to weaken the AfD, which thrives on democratic parties bickering.

Everybody knew, and they must have known that they would only strengthen the Afd if they went all in on “bad foreigners” as the primary campaign topic.

And there was internal opposition! But CDU does as CDU does once Merz was elected leader, not so much because Merkel's wing would be weak but because the middle wing wanted to balance the scales, the rest of the party kept silent to only moderating slightly. They do that kind of thing all the time, shifting the external perception of the party by putting different people on the front. They might not be deep strategists but they know what strategy is and they have the internal discipline to follow through on it.

Side note did you notice Söder very much emphasising social stuff in the Union faction press conference. Fuck me if in the end it's the Bavarians causing a resurgence in social housing projects etc, actually combat the core reasons why the AfD surged. Maybe even sell it as a grand "Bismarckian" thing, ignore the AfD, say it's to keep the icky left in check.