Germany: Not voting for women's rights...

[Delphin]

(evil thread title, I know :-) )

On Sunday, there are national (Bundestag) elections in Germany. I have been worrying and thinking about who to vote for for weeks.

My priorities were, in that order:

1. Women's rights: I didn't want to vote for a party that put the Self-ID law in its current form into the law book. That took Greens, Socialdemocrats and Liberals out of the race.
2. "Debt Brake" (constitutional brake on investions out of state debt). It needs to go, or at least heavily reformed, to get Germany out of the economic slump. That took the Christian Democrats out.
3. Defence and the Ukraine: More investions into the Army, and a realistic policy about Russia, more help for Ukraine.

I had decided on voting for the Christian Democrats for the first time in my life, despite #2, because of #1 and #3.
Then Munich and Riyadh happened.

I will be voting Greens, as they have the security policy plans that align most with my opinions. They also want to reform the debt brake, which needs to happen for the massive investments needed in defence and in infrastructure and industry policies.

For the first time in my life I have the feeling that this is indeed a single issue election. That we are at a point where we need to chance course internationally (and thus nationally), to preserve our society/societies in Europe. I was around for the 1980s Nachrüstungsdebatte (debate on more medium range missiles to be stationed in Germany), but it never felt this acute, even though I was a teen/twen then. I cannot in good conscience "punish" the Greens or Social Democrats for the SelfID law though withdrawing my vote, while Europe is in turmoil (well, the Social Democrats deserve to be punished for their Ukraine policy so far).

I feel like a traitor, although I know that a "punishment" vote won't make a difference as the law is already in power. It's now grassroots work to inform people about its problems and getting it reformed and partly rescinded (the part that basically defined sex out of German law books, and therefore changed all laws that concern women as a sex class). I am looking for a way to get involved (but as I am away from the big cities, there aren't many options in real life).

How do other German voters feel about this? (I know you're out there :-) ) .

I agree with @Brefugee that the west doesn’t care enough about what the east Germans went through, and just tried to “integrate” them. I also read that a lot of positive elements like better childcare were abolished just because they were a piece of the old system out of principle.

I know that this had partly to do with “indoctrination” and shaping the kids without the influence of the family – it was a socialist state after all – and they only did it because without the women they would have been short on workforce, but it surely would have been possible to drop the political background and keep the infrastructure. This is only one example of many. The STEM-research was also very good.

It refers back to what I wrote here earlier, that many in Eastern Germany still have a deep mistrust of the state and parties like AfD tap into this.

I also care about many aspects, not only Self-ID and my vote was entirely tactical to make the best of the situation.

“What i am seeing, not just here but also in the UK and especially in the US at the last election - is some parties (mostly the left-of-centre, strangely) seemingly ploughing their own furrow, expecting their supporters to simply go along with it, and paying no real mind to the actual wishes/needs/wants of their (potential) constituents. The Democratic campaign against Trump was a brilliant example of what happens when you (and i don't want to use the term with woke/broke in it, but it did very much look that way) ignore what people on the ground are saying.”
@Brefugee totally agree

@Mielikki your point about the Allies shaping our culture is also very good and I agree with that and it is somewhat ridiculous that the loudest US politicians either can't see it or are not aware of that.

@Delphin
yeah, I know they are making this stand about stopping the war due to humanitarian reasons. I'm not sure what is behind that or what the motivation is; still trying to figure that out. They also had an article by a retired German general who was saying Russia doesn't have the resources to attack Europe or something of that kind.

However, I know that my knowledge and that of my relatives about this kind of thing is much stronger and more sceptical so I'm not worried about anyone getting swayed without additional information. And tbf, everyone wants the war to end; the question is more how do you secure the country and keep Russia from repowering and trying the same in a few years.

The articles on women's rights topics are things which are much more difficult to discuss and I can imagine, too, that people would just say it's not true as they couldn't grasp the depth of what is happening. Something written is very helpful, especially the stories by detransitioners.
By the way, there is a new book by a doctor working in youth medicine, Alexander Korte: "Hinter dem Regenbogen". He is also one of the expert voices disagreeing with the medical boards who are still in favour of hormones for under 18y/o.

@EasternStandard

About the roles of Starmer, Macron and Merz in finding a way forward: It is very important that the USA discusses with different allies how the future might look. They are all trying to find a way between not setting off Trump (which is near impossible because he'll do it anyways) and speaking for their own countries. Actually I think since he's going to something insane anyways, there isn't a reason to be so delicate. Maybe it'll be better to be as posturing as Putin.

Also all three countries have tech and military industry which wants to profit from whatever the result is. Plus disconnecting NATO from the US military would be a very complex and long path.

I don't think any of the European leaders only speaks for themselves, they all hold calls and consultations between each other all the time, and they will all try to balance the interests of their own country, European stability and security and not wiping away the future when the US will have a different government again.

Actually I wonder how loud the voices of the US and NATO military personnel are, because they surely have the expertise for these decisions.

But I'm not worried Macron or whoever fixes a deal only for his country. He'll know he has to work with other European politicians, too.

It'll be interesting how much Europe's new "Foreign minister", Kaja Kallas can bring to the negotiations with Russia. After all as former Estonian Prime Minister she has much experience with their neighbour and her stance is that you can never trust Russia.

re: Kaja Kallas.
She was guest in the NDR podcast "Streitkräfte und Strategien" last week, episode on the Munich Security Conference called "Europas Sicherheit "zertrumpelt" (Sonderfolge mit Kaja Kallas)"
Haven't listened to it yet.
https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/info/Europas-Sicherheit-zertrumpelt-Sonderfolge-mit-Kaja-Kallas,audio1815564.html

@ForestAtTheSea yes I'm not far off your view, I'd be happy with Macron's press conference and I'm wondering if another is that useful.

We're very close in views and Trump won't change much

@Mielikki very good point about the indoctrination of the West Germans. That is definitely food for thought.

@Delphin thanks for the interview link!

News:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/25/afd-readmits-two-politicians-excluded-over-nazi-related-remarks

Re Nuclear umbrella, as discussed up-thread:
"France is apparently looking at the possibility of deploying air-launched nuclear weapons to Germany, a consideration that’s being made amid growing concerns that the United States will no longer guarantee European security under NATO. "
https://www.twz.com/air/france-eyeing-deployment-of-nuclear-armed-rafale-fighters-to-germany-report

De Gaulle's decision to develop an independent nuclear deterrent seems more and more prescient by the day. We of course merely lease our Tridents from the US and are wholly reliant on them for maintaining them. It wouldn't surprise me at all for Trump to use this as a card in any negotiations with the UK over, well, anything. Hopefully his generals have kept the facts from him.

Thank you for mentioning the Korte book. I just checked and they actually have one copy - out on loan just now - at the main library in my city. I’m surprised they have it, although recently there has been an increase in books that aren’t promoting trans ideology.

@BeanieSue
You're welcome; it is not at my library yet but I plan to add it to the suggestion box. Usually they are very good about feminist books and books about education / children with disabilities, autism, ADHD, LGB and T, these kinds of things, as there often is a crossover of these topics (for example autistic and wrongly diagnosed as T, trying to identify out of oppression), but there is a gap in this regard.

Some feminist books are also only of the "cool girl" variant; they are not so bad but they don't go to the structural causes of the problems.

I know my library is frequented heavily, so the choice of books can really have an impact on discussion in society.

And with a nod to the thread topic: currently the negotiations about the coalition between conservatives (CDU) and social-democrats (SPD) are still ongoing.
The old government and parliament are still in placeholder / caretaker position and keeping things ticking along until the new government is ready.

At the moment the upcoming coalition wants the current parliament to agree to new debts for defense and other topics, because in the new parliament these would be harder to decide about without relying on AfD votes which they want to avoid. There is some murmuring about how constitutional this is that the old parliament decides about this amount of debt, as usually they should not make decisions that could hinder the next government.

However, in this case the next government has planned this, so that could be viewed as an exception. Currently there are debates by law experts and by the smaller parties like The Left and the Greens who want more concessions in exchange for the agreement.

An overview here:
https://www.dw.com/en/german-election-2025/t-70794502

I still sometimes see rumours about rescinding the Self-ID law but I don't know how substantial they are. The main topic is of course dealing with the US maniacs and defense.