In particular I wanted to know about plans to replace the town swimming pool, which has been closed for several years.  Recently there has been some discussion about the town selling off land to finance the building work.  This would not be so bad, if there was not already a sports field on it!

Then I wanted to know what plans the town has for the future of the schools here, in particular any plans for Ganztagsschulen – schools that teach all day rather than just in the morning.

And finally I wanted to see what they had to say about the forthcoming Hessentag, in particular about the lack of information for businesses in the town and my recent attempts to get a permit to enter the closed-off part of the town in order to visit my customers during the event.

I was also interested to see how the parties approached me, as an EU citizen (there are other elections taking place tomorrow, that I am not allowed to vote in), and in general how prepared they were to answer questions from the public.  I went along the stands in the order that they were on the street.

CDU

I received one of my warmest welcomes at the CDU stand, and some of the most detailed information.  They would like to sell the sports field and the current swimming pool car park, but the number of car parking spaces would remain the same – just be on a different part of the complex.  This is something that I haven’t read previously.  Although I am somewhat sceptical about their plan to offer the sports clubs sponsored transport to other parts of the town, I can understand their predicament because they are trying to please the swimming clubs as well and keep everyone happy.

We did talk about schools, but other than how difficult it is to expand them I did not learn much, although I am at a loss to understand why the current expansion of the town’s grammar school did not include making it into a Ganztagsschule.

There was no response to my mentioning the Hessentag, but other than that I did at least feel as if someone took time to explain their policies to me.

FDP

The FDP were as good as presenting themselves as stereotypical liberals.  They have “agreed with the CDU” on the matter of the swimming pool – to the extent of putting out joint literature.  They are keeping themselves out of the Ganztagsschule discussion, but the person I spoke to did not think this was a viable solution for our schools.  Hessentag? There’s nothing they can do about it, and their members also have problems to deal with such as the rubbish collection being cancelled during the event.

In fact, the whole discussion felt a bit like “we don’t have an opinion”, or if they do they did not want to talk to me about it.

Die Linke

My visit to the Linke stand did not start off well, because the first person I met was more interested in explaining the other elections going on tomorrow, and did not seem to understand that I could not vote in them.  Eventually her colleague took over, and left her to pack up the stand (an hour before the other parties!)

The party would like to build the swimming pool as soon as possibly, even if costs more, and then cancel other projects in the town pay for it.  They did not want to talk about school, because that is a state (Land) thing.

OBG

OBG stands for Oberurseler Bürgergemeinschaft, ie. it is not even a regional party, but one that you only find in Oberursel.

They would also like to finance the swimming pool by cancelling other projects that they see as unnecessary, and are in favour of extending the length of the school day.

Interestingly it was here that I had one of the longest discussions about the Hessentag, especially about how it is going to affect local businesses.  For the first time, I was asked for my name and address to that someone could look into my problem and see if a solution can be found!

Die Grünen

I talked quite a bit about the Hessentag here as well – especially the question of whether it is going to be “Klimaneutral” (ie. have a zero-CO2 balance).  According to the Green party, there are some projects working towards this, but it is only going to be achieved by buying carbon credits).

Then we did have quite a good discussion about schools, but a lot of it theoretical because again it is not something the town can do much about.

They would like to sell the car park and not the sports field to finance the swimming pool, accept that doing away with a car park altogether is not an option.

SPD

My visit to the SPD stand started off as a typical opposition party talk – they could tell me what the other parties are doing wrong and they did not vote for them, but very little in the way of how they would do things differently as far as the swimming pool is concerned.

Schools were almost a non-issue – because it’s a state thing.

My biggest shock was when I mentioned my Hessentag problem, which they did vote for.  After listening to how I was having problems getting a permit to enter the town during the festival, I was whisked off to the mayor (who is also from that party).

However his first reaction was “das wird nicht gehen” – “that won’t be possible”.  After the SPD candidate explained the situation to him in more detail, we got as far as “müssen Sie wirklich in allen Zonen?” - “do you really need to access to all zones?” and finally the offer to send him an e-mail next week so that he can look into it.

To be honest, I do not know quite what to make of that offer.  It reminds me of the information evening last year, when anyone with a problem did not get their question answered and was told instead to contact the Rathaus .  Was it happening to me now?  I shall write that e-mail and then we will see what happens.

Summing up

I learnt a lot this morning to help me decide who to give my votes to tomorrow.  Some parties took more time for me than others, in some cases I was talking to top people within the town and sometimes I was talking to specialists for particular topics.  But sometimes I felt as if I was just meant to take a manifesto flyer and move on.

I found quite a lot of support for Ganztagsschulen, but a reluctance for the town to get involved and put any pressure on higher levels of government to introduce them – even to the extent of being told that this could have a knock-on effect on other areas, such as how to deal with the people currently employed to run homework clubs and similar schemes.

But it was definitely a worthwhile exercise, and I found several candidates who I would like to see in the town parliament, even if I do not entirely agree with their policies and would prefer their party not to have a majority.

Luckily I have 45 votes tomorrow and look forward to Kumulieren und Panaschieren.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Hessen votes… again
• Anything is possible in German politics
• Violence in the Taunus area

At least, that makes it easy for the electorate, because they can vote for someone they like, but still express a preference for a different party to have a majority in parliament.

For those working out the make of the parliament, there is a highly complex formula that determines how many seats each party gets, and depends on the number of direct mandates that individual candidates achieve, leading to the infamous Überhangmandate, which are worth a post all by themselves one day.

Until a few years ago, when some parts of Germany – Hessen included – introduced something call “Kumulieren und Panaschieren”.

Put simply: in the forthcoming local election I have 45 votes to cast.  The ballot sheet is A2 size and has 207 candidates on it, grouped by political party.  (Residents in Frankfurt have 93 votes and apparently the voting booths have had to be widened so that the ballot sheet fits on the table!)

I can give my 45 votes to any of those 207 candidates.  I do not have to use up all 45, but I cannot give more than 45.

To make life simpler, I can just put a cross against a party and all of my votes will be distributed amongst their candidates – something I am sure many people do.

But I am not restricted to one party, I can distribute my votes across candidates from all 6 of the parties on the ballot sheet.  This is called Panaschieren.

As if that was not enough, I can also give up to 3 votes per candidate, as long as the total number of votes does not exceed 45.  This is called Kumulieren.

It is when you combine the two that the real fun starts!

You can

• put a cross against a party, but cross-out one or more of their candidates
• put a cross against a party, cross-out one or more of their candidates and re-distribute those votes to candidates from other parties
• put a cross against a party, cross-out one or more of their candidates and re-distribute those votes to other candidates from the same party
• vote for a party with less than 45 candidates, and give some of the votes to candidates from other parties

It is no wonder that people get confused, and voting takes longer than ever – it makes “first part the post” look like a picnic!

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Why I can’t vote next week
• Local Elections in Oberursel
• What purpose does the Ausländerbeiratswahl serve?

So what’s the Ausländerbeirat you might be asking?

The state of Hessen (Hesse) stipulates that any town with more than 1000 foreigners living in it must have one.  Once in office, the town has to inform them about any decisions that will affect foreigners.  They are also allowed to sit in on various committees.

The last time I heard anything from them was 5 years ago – at the last election.

Although you don’t really “hear” from them, other than the polling card arriving.  I don’t believe I’ve ever met a member of the Beirat.  They’ve certainly never come canvassing my vote at any time that I am aware of.  And since there is only a list of names on the ballot sheet and no political parties, deciding who to vote for is not an easy task.

Admittedly there was a presentation-type evening in the town hall a few weeks ago, where you could meet the candidates.  Apparently.  I read about it far too late on the town website to be able to go, and there was no mention of it on the polling card.

So I suspect that many people treat it a bit like the Eurovision Song Contest and vote for nationalities that they are sympathetic to.  Or at least names that sound like those nationalities.

Which makes me wonder if we really need this Beirat.  Are we foreigners in the town so special, that our voices need to be heard more than any other social group at town meetings?

On the other hand, do we really care?  Considering that the turnout was just over 3%, I don’t think many people here do.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Local Elections in Oberursel
• Kumulieren and Panaschieren
• Why I can’t vote next week

He or she is elected not by the people, but by the Bundesversammlung – a rather strange arrangement consisting of the members of the Bundestag (lower house), Bundesrat (upper house), as well as representatives from each state’s parliament.  It is the largest political entity in Germany, currently with 1244 members. The Bundestag members make up 50% of the votes.

And since the amount of votes each party holds depends on their share of power in each of the states, the Bundesversammlung does not necessarily reflect the normal political state of the country as a whole.

When President Horst Köhler resigned on Monday, the wheels were set in motion to calculate the membership for the election of a new president by the end of June.  The German constitution allows only 30 days for this to happen.  Three days later, and despite modern technology those calculations continue.

Schloss Bellevue in Berlin - official residence of the German President

But why does Germany need a new president in the first place?  Apparently President Köhler gave an interview last week which was – as far as I understand – reported out of context.  He was asked for clarification by some of the major political parties.  And then he resigned.  It all happened very quickly.

In fact, the media has been more interested in the sudden resignation and whether it was necessary, than what he actually said in that interview.

The offending quote from the interview is of course being, well, quoted, in Die Welt for example.  President Köhler is quoted as saying that sometimes it is necessary to use military force to protect German interests such as free trade.

I can understand that a lot of people are unhappy about him saying that.  After all, Germany did not deploy troops outside the country for many years.  When they did start to take part in missions such as in Afghanistan this led to a lot of discussion in the country.  But in the end and thanks to limits in the mission for the German detachment it was seen as helping the Afghan people get back on their feet.

The idea that Germany is providing troops to protect its own national interests will certainly be problematic for many.

But I suspect with his resignation President Köhler has stopped that discussion in his tracks.  And Chancellor Merkel has certainly caused enough new discussion with the names put forward as possibly candidates.

Whilst a large number of internet users in Germany are calling for Lena to be elected (which is not only a really silly idea as she probably lacks any form of experience for such a high-ranking position, but is also impossible due to the minimum age requirement of 40 year), there are reports that her favourite candidate would be Ursula von der Leyen who spent 4 years in Merkel’s Governemnt as the minister for “family, pensions, women and youth” and is currently employment minister.

But Frau von der Leyen has had her share of controversy during that time with her  comments on Kindergarten places, the role of the traditional family, and the introduction of a law to prevent access to child pornography on the internet by blocking access to such sites without taking action against the owners of the sites themselves.  This led to her being given the nickname “Zensursula” when IT experts started pointing out that the law was largely ineffective but would theoretically allow the state to censor other parts of the internet as well, such as those critical of the Government.

Other suggestions for the post have been Edmund Stoiber, who ran Bavaria for 14 years and even unsuccessfully campaigned to be Chancellor in 2002.  Or Wolfgang Schäuble, who introduced amendments to the so-called “BKA Law” allowing for undercover computer surveillance tactics by the state, only months after a similar law was criticised by German’s highest court.

And finally, there were suggestions that Margot Käßmann would be a possible candidate.  Frau Käßmann became the leader of Germany’s protestant Church in October 2009, only to resign from the post in February 2010 after being caught driving through a red light whilst drunk.

Quite frankly, none of these candidates really seems to me to be right for the job.  On the other hand, one comment I read of a website pointed out that whilst he was in office, many German citizens were not able to name their president, and when even when asked “who is Horst Köhler” could not provide the correct answer.

The role if the President in Germany is largely ceremonial.  They undertake foreign visits, shake hands with dignatories and entertain foreign heads of state.  They sign laws, but do not make them.  As we have seen, they can remain widely unknown during their term of office.

Perhaps one of those candidates might be suitable after all.

Some other posts that our readers enjoy:

• Listening by phone
• Introducing the “Schultüte”
• Starting school

To vote in the UK your name has to be on the electoral roll, and to be on that you have to fulfil certain conditions.  One of these used to be an address in the UK and the normal method of registration is still via a form that is delivered to all households between September and November each year.

But even if you registered on a UK address and then spent most of your time out of the country there was a distinct downside to being on the electoral role: jury service.  Since the members of a court jury are selected at random from the electoral roll, being on it you run the risk of being summoned for jury service and having to travel back to the UK at short notice – something a German employer may not understand.

Now, however, times have started to change and much like other countries UK citizens are being allowed to vote even if they live overseas – at least in the General Election.

To do so, you need to register as a voter and have your registration counter-signed by another British citizen living abroad.  You will also need to chose between a proxy or postal vote – and apply for these far enough in advance of the election (not easy with this election being called so close to the actual voting day).

And yet these new rules will not help me, as there is one important limit – you must not have lived outside the UK for more than 15 years – exactly the amount of time that I have now lived in Germany.

So although I will following the results of the General Election next week and parts of the campaign have even made the news in Germany, I shall not be able to vote.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

• Kumulieren and Panaschieren
• Local Elections in Oberursel
• What purpose does the Ausländerbeiratswahl serve?