In English, election time-which was the headline of a special edition of Das Bild newspaper yesterday -which was delivered free to our house.
All indicators show that Merkel is on cruise control to a third term as the Kanzlerin ( Chancellor). However because one of her coalition partners lost badly-the Free Democrats, she will have to probably find a new partner-most likely the SPD. And you can bet they are going to want something for the deal.
Yesterday the S.O. and I went to the flea market in downtown Stuttgart. There were some rallies going on on Konigstrasse-and also the posters were all out in force.
The poster says, "Go vote! On 22 September 2013". It is from the SPD.
There were a few other posters out yesterday- I really found this one interesting:
It is from the Alternative Party ( a small left party). The poster says : "Courage for [telling]truth. The Greeks are suffering. The Germans are paying. The banks are cashing in."
And of course our old friends the Pirate Party are still out in force:
.This one says: " The great coalition of the survellance" "Mass surveillenace must be stopped. Safety laws must be checked."
It is a jab about cooperation with the NSA. By the way-if you look closely the camera is wearing a green Angela Merkel dress-with Angela Merkel pearls. Not so subtle imagery that she is quite on board with this program.
It will be interesting to see how quickly the posters come down tomorrow.
On a positive note-the circus came to town-to the next village over. The connection to the election? Probably none-but it has to be good for at least a couple of irony points.