Susano
Banned
You do see that the majority of the German politicians I hailed as shining examples of how a politician should be are/were somewhat to the left of center, right?
Although I still would not characterize Helmut Schmidt as strictly left-of-center...the signals he sent and keeps sending are a bit confusing...
Kohl left-of-center? Since when? Maybe its a generational shift thing, but he always seemed very conservative to me. Maybe not in matters of welfare and the like, but in matters of social and civil rights, and that to me is the main defining poingt of right and left wing.
And beyond that there is the chancellor who got himself bribed by a French company and then valued his own word more than the rule of law! Besides the post-unification mess his coalition created, but I talked about that in the 20 Years ago thread (German reunification) in Off-Topic already... so bah to him being a great politican. Though of course the best thing to happen (Kohl achieves reunification, then SPD wins the elections) is ASB.
I dunno. Steinbrück managed to profile himself over the crisis. Of course, that does take sufficient competenceWell, I consider Schäuble as not loyal to Merkel, but rather to the CDU, for which I consider him still being an assett, filling a position which can only be rather unthankful under the conditions of the current economic crisis.
He was a bit thin-skinned, but the comment he got so criticiszed about was right - German troops should follow German economical interests.The presidency might be a different point. Köhler seemed to be a good idea at the time, but with hindsight, he wasn't up for the task (at least not over the double tenure of 10 years).
Merkel, Queen of Blades?he would succumb to the Killer Queen from the East.
Yeah, seems like a good characterisation. So I think hed have stayed anyways.I actually consider Schäuble as one of those political animals who cannot live without their "drug". There would have been enough occasions on which he could have withdrawn into privacy. As long as there is a position for them, they will be there.
Or the more radical "Stellt ihn an die Wand" of coursethen the pun "Schäuble geht gar nicht" isn't effective.
Given the average quality of CDU chancellors thats not really difficultI use to say that Helmut Schmidt was the best CDU chancellor Germany ever had...