Hey everyone, Dana here! And guess what?
It is election time in Germany.
That’s right, coming up on Sunday, September 24, 2017, Germans will vote in the German
federal election.
Now, I’m not able to vote, I’m not a German citizen.
But Mr. German Man will be voting and listening to him and just living here in Germany for
7 years, I have definitely noticed some differences -- very interesting differences -- between
the German federal election and the Presidential election in the U.S.
Okay, so first of all, let’s talk dates.
At the top of this video I said that the election day in Germany is on Sunday, September 24
this year.
Key word here being Sunday.
Voting in Germany takes place on a Sunday so that, what a concept, people have off work
so that they can actually go vote, unlike in the U.S. where the election is held on
a Tuesday, which may have been a perfectly convenient day of the week for people back
in 1845 when that day was chosen, but nowadays I think it’s either time for an update,
you know, change it to the weekend.
Or maybe make election day in the U.S. a federal holiday.
Some states in the U.S. actually already have election day as a holiday in that state.
So just go ahead and make it a federal holiday and then more people can go and vote.
Another difference that is really apparent if you’re in the U.S. a year leading up
to the election is the campaigning.
As I explained in this video here, I think we can all pretty much agree that the U.S.
election process from start to finish is a long, long, long and very drawn out process.
First you’ve got the primary elections within parties, themselves.
Multiple candidates running in each party against each other to decide who is going
to be nominated within the party.
And then once that’s decided it’s already been months of campaigning, and only just
then is it finally time for the candidates to actually campaign for the “real thing;”
going up against an opponent from another party.
So how is it in Germany?
Well, from what I could find, it looks like there’s no official rule that limits the
actual campaign time in Germany itself, but it certainly does not go on for a year and
a half as it can in the U.S.
And in some states in Germany, there is a limit on when the political parties can actually
begin putting up the billboards and posters out on the streets around town.
So in a lot of states, there is a limit on that.
For example, in Bavaria, where I live the billboards and posters are limited to six
weeks before the election day. Six weeks. That’s it.
You’ve got six weeks of political billboards and posters around town in Bavaria.
No more than that.
And while I have seen a good number of posters posted up all around town, as of filming this
video at the very beginning of September, I honestly haven’t noticed so many billboards
out on the streets yet.
Mr. German Man says that the number of billboards out there usually actually only picks up right
before election day.
So, I'll keep an eye out for them.
In addition to that, there also aren’t as many political ads running on TV in Germany.
Not only are the TV ads limited to a certain amount per party, but they’re also limited in time.
But actually, so far I haven’t seen any political TV ads in Germany because I usually
watch YouTube or movies or TV shows with streaming services, but I’ve heard they’re out there.
Just not as many out there as in the U.S.
Alright, so, now how about the political parties in Germany, themselves.
And the first big thing to note here is that there are way more political parties in Germany
than in the U.S., and all of them are trying to get seats in the Bundestag, which is the
parliament here in Germany.
To get a seat in parliament, the party must pass the 5% threshold, which means the party
needs to receive at least 5% of the Zweitstimme on the ballot.
What is the Zweitstimme you ask?
Besides a tongue twister for me, it is the second vote on the ballot here in Germany.
Now, I, myself, have not personally seen a ballot, but Mr. German Man has voted many
times in his life and he describes the voting process on the ballot as follows:
The ballot is pretty easy.
I like how he starts off with that. I guess I'll let you be the judge, though, after hearing this.
But Mr. German Man starts with: the ballot is pretty easy.
You get two votes.
A first vote, where you can directly vote for the representative from your district
that you’d like to have a seat in parliament.
Okay.
For this, each party is allowed one representative per district.
But on the ballot for this first vote, there may also be some representatives that are
not affiliated with any party.
Okay. So I got that. First vote, you're voting for a representative from your district.
That's your first vote. Okay.
Then there’s the Zweitstimme, the second vote you have, where you vote for the political
party that you’d like to send to parliament.
Okay. So first vote you vote for the actual representative, a person.
And the second vote, you vote for a political party.
Okay, that makes sense.
He goes on to say: So if you wanted to, you could actually vote for two totally different
parties, if you voted for a representative from one party in your first vote and then
voted for a different overall party with your second vote.
Okay, that makes sense.
First vote could go to representative XYZ from one party.
And you could give, technically, your second vote to another party, a different party. Okay.
Why might you do that?
And then he explains: Complicated strategic reasons that are too much for me to go into here.
Okay, got it.
Thank you so much Mr. German Man for that explanation!
Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
But if you are still left feeling a little like: Huh? after that explanation, I will
leave some links down in the description box below that hopefully help clarify the German
voting system a little bit more.
The political parties that are currently in the German parliament include: the Union,
which is the CDU and the CSU together, SPD, Die Linke and Die Grünen.
But in this 2017 election, there are actually a lot more political parties vying for spots.
According to the Bundeswahlleiter, there are 42 different parties taking part in the election this year.
42 parties!
The largest party in parliament right now is the CDU, which stands for Christian Democratic Union
in English, and it is a moderately conservative party,
and is the party that Chancellor Angela Merkel is a member of.
The SPD is currently the second largest party behind the CDU.
And SPD stands for Social Democratic Party in English, and it is a moderately liberal party.
This year, it’s the only political party whose candidate, Martin Schulz, stands any
chance at all of beating Angela Merkel in the election, although the current forecast
is predicting Angela Merkel to win once more.
Die Linke or The Left in English is a left-wing populist party.
And most of this party’s votes come from the area of Germany that was formerly East Germany.
And Die Grünen, The Greens in English.
This party often focuses on environmental and sustainability issues.
And then there are also two other parties that are not currently in the German parliament
but are forecasted to get enough votes this year in order to get in.
Because remember: that 5% threshold.
The FDP is one of them, which stands for Free Democratic Party in English.
And it is a liberal, pro-business party.
And then the other one is AfD, which stands for Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany.
And it is an anti-immigrant, right-wing populist party.
And lastly: Who can vote?
Well, as I said, not me because I’m not a German citizen.
But German citizens 18 and older can vote in the election.
So my question for you is: What are your thoughts on the election this year, and how are elections
that you’ve experienced in other parts of the world different from how it works in Germany?
Please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching.
I really hope that you enjoyed this video.
And also a really big thank you so much to our patrons on Patreon who help make these
videos possible.
Thank you so much for your support.
If you would like to check out our Patreon page or if you'd like more information on
the election process in Germany, you can find links to all of that down in the description
box below.
Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
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We are recording! We are recording? Yes. Recording.
Some states actually already have election...