There is something sad about how the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, pretended everything was fine in her government statement on Thursday. Because it has already been confirmed by a judge that she was not even lawfully elected to office.
On Wednesday, the state constitutional court declared the 2021 elections to the Berlin House of Representatives invalid and ordered a complete repetition. Reason: too many mistakes, too much chaos, basically too much sloppiness in dealing with one of the highest goods of a free society, the right to vote. That was a smack that must wake everyone up. Actually. Must have the consequences. Actually.
But Giffey can’t even get an apology out of his mouth. Only admit mistakes. They just happened and shouldn’t happen again. It is also not possible to say who is responsible for this, the blame is spread over many shoulders. And maybe she really thinks that’s enough of the words.
Rather, she is showing a lack of awareness of the problem, which is tearing my hair out – and which gives an idea of what Berlin will face in the coming months.
We make sure that Berlin keeps going despite the challenges.
Franziska Giffey on November 17th
Giffey shows us how, the day after the election was won, she switches directly to campaign mode. The red-green-red coalition will take care of the economy, the energy supply and, of course, the people. “We make sure that Berlin keeps going despite the challenges,” she says. continues?
Who is supposed to believe that when Berlin hasn’t even managed to do what works everywhere else in Germany? Hold a valid election. And who is to believe that the right people are up for re-election if they don’t even want to find out who is responsible for it in a year after the chaos election day.
Although the interior senator responsible at the time was from Giffey’s own party, the SPD. Who should be given the responsibility if no one wants to take political responsibility for this disaster to this day?
The spectacle is also so depressing because Giffey was actually able to ignite something like a spark of awakening during the 2021 election campaign. At least it was so effective that many non-voters gave up their abstinence and went to the polling station.
In general, the turnout was higher than usual because the vote coincided with the general election. If the election hadn’t been prepared so amateurishly, it would have been a good time for democracy.
What now follows is the opposite: frustration, standstill, election campaign wrangling. It is hard to believe that as many voters will take part in the repetition in February.
In addition, Berlin is facing hard times. The parties must therefore not only be concerned with profiling. Not just about early election gifts, like the huge relief package.
Berlin is putting huge problems ahead of itself. The schools, the traffic, the dysfunctional administration. There will now be many promises about this in the election campaign. But action will only be taken after the election and presumably tough coalition negotiations again. City and people fall by the wayside. And nobody wants it to have been.
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Source: Tagesspiegel
I work as a news website author and mostly cover the opinion section. I have been writing since I was a teenager, and have always enjoyed telling stories. I studied journalism at university and loved every minute of it. After graduating, I decided to move to London and take up a position with a Global Happenings. It has been an incredible experience, learning about all sorts of different cultures and meeting some amazing people. My goal is to continue learning and growing in my career so that I can provide readers with the best possible content.
