This coming Sunday, the 24th of September,
"Federal elections will be held in Germany [ .... ]to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. The new Bundestag will have to elect a Chancellor with an absolute majority of its members, who will in turn form a new government. (Wikipedia)
If the German polls are anything to go by,
"The German Chancellor [Angela Merkel] currently look set to storm to victory in the German election in September 2017 after managing to widen her lead over Martin Schulz in recent months.
...
[...] the CDU/CSU now have now won back a staggering 16-point lead with 37 per cent support, compared to just 21 per cent for the SNP, according to the same poll September" (Alice Foster : Daily Express : 14 September, 2017) (my emphasis)
In the wings, however, is the AfD Party in Germany.
"In a sign of the growing discontent, the anti-euro, anti-Islam and anti-immigration AfD is tipped to become the first hard-right party to clear the five-percent bar to win seats in the national parliament since the end of World War II. ( Rappler (Agence France Presse) : September 20, 2017) (my emphasis)
Since its launch in 2013, the AfD Party in Germany has emphasised that,
"More powers must return to the nation states, AfD says, opposing all "centralising" moves in the EU, and anything that smacks of Euro-federalism." (BBC News : 18 September 2017) (my emphasis)
This nationalist political agenda of the AfD party mirrors what Trump said throughout his presidential election campaign in 2016, and at his inaugural speech at the UN yesterday. (19 September, 2017)
It also mirrors Putin's nationalist argument about 'protecting' Russians, by his invading and annexing of Ukrainian Crimea, and subsequently invading Ukraine in the Donbas, in 2014.
It is also these of Putin's actions, wrapped up in his nationalist "Novorossiya" flag, that led to the millstone of EU and US sanctions against himself and his 'siloviki' now hanging around his neck, and that ultimately led him to help Trump into the White House in 2018.
Putin expected those US sanctions to be removed, as well as the normalization of US-Russia relations when Trump, thanks to Putin, entered the White House.
As reported by John Hudson,
"Federal elections will be held in Germany [ .... ]to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. The new Bundestag will have to elect a Chancellor with an absolute majority of its members, who will in turn form a new government. (Wikipedia)
If the German polls are anything to go by,
"The German Chancellor [Angela Merkel] currently look set to storm to victory in the German election in September 2017 after managing to widen her lead over Martin Schulz in recent months. ...
[...] the CDU/CSU now have now won back a staggering 16-point lead with 37 per cent support, compared to just 21 per cent for the SNP, according to the same poll September" (Alice Foster : Daily Express : 14 September, 2017) (my emphasis)
In the wings, however, is the AfD Party in Germany.
"In a sign of the growing discontent, the anti-euro, anti-Islam and anti-immigration AfD is tipped to become the first hard-right party to clear the five-percent bar to win seats in the national parliament since the end of World War II. ( Rappler (Agence France Presse) : September 20, 2017) (my emphasis)
Since its launch in 2013, the AfD Party in Germany has emphasised that,
"More powers must return to the nation states, AfD says, opposing all "centralising" moves in the EU, and anything that smacks of Euro-federalism." (BBC News : 18 September 2017) (my emphasis)
This nationalist political agenda of the AfD party mirrors what Trump said throughout his presidential election campaign in 2016, and at his inaugural speech at the UN yesterday. (19 September, 2017)
It also mirrors Putin's nationalist argument about 'protecting' Russians, by his invading and annexing of Ukrainian Crimea, and subsequently invading Ukraine in the Donbas, in 2014.
- Speaking last year (2014), Mr Putin had said only that he took his final decision about Crimea after secret, undated opinion polls showed 80% of Crimeans favoured joining Russia. (BBC : 9 March 2015) (my emphasis)
- In his address to the Russian State Duma Deputies (March 18, 2014) he stated his nationalist 'Novorossiya' argument for invading and annexing Crimea. "In people’s hearts and minds, [he said,] Crimea has always been an inseparable part of Russia. This firm conviction is based on truth and justice and was passed from generation to generation, over time, under any circumstances, despite all the dramatic changes our country went through during the entire 20th century." (The Kremlin : March 18, 2014) (my emphasis)
- Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his government was “forced to defend the Russian speakers” of eastern Ukraine, despite previously denying that Moscow plays any formal role in the conflict in the Donbas regions. (Damien Sharkov : Newsweek : 10/12/16) (my emphasis)
It is also these of Putin's actions, wrapped up in his nationalist "Novorossiya" flag, that led to the millstone of EU and US sanctions against himself and his 'siloviki' now hanging around his neck, and that ultimately led him to help Trump into the White House in 2018.Putin expected those US sanctions to be removed, as well as the normalization of US-Russia relations when Trump, thanks to Putin, entered the White House.
As reported by John Hudson,
" In the third month of Donald Trump’s presidency, Vladimir Putin
dispatched one of his diplomats to the State Department to deliver a
bold proposition: the full normalization of relations between the United
States and Russia across all major branches of government.
The
proposal, spelled out in a detailed document obtained by BuzzFeed News,
called for the wholesale restoration of diplomatic, military, and
intelligence channels severed between the two countries after Russia’s
military interventions in Ukraine and Syria.
The broad scope of the Kremlin’s reset plan came with an ambitious launch date: immediately." (Buzzfeed News : September 12, 2017) (my emphasis)
Unfortunately for Putin, the intelligence investigations into the Putin-Trump collusion during the 2016 US presidential elections in the US Senate and House of Congress rather put paid to this bold idea of his.
Now Putin's hope is that in the upcoming elections in Germany this Sunday, the AfD party,
"...could lead the opposition in the Bundestag, a role that traditionally carries additional privileges, such as the presidency of the parliament’s budget committee.
According to a projection published last week by Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper, the far-right party [AfD] could end up with as many of 89 out of 703 members in the Bundestag." (Philip Oltermann (right): The Guardian : Sunday 17 September 2017) (my emphasis)
Such a result would be sweet music to the ears of Putin and his German business buddies, since an AfD presidency of the Bundestag's budget committee would add further pressure for the lifting of the EU sanctions against Putin and his 'siloviki' clan.
Putin must now be praying for the success of the AfD German political party in Sunday's Bundestag elections.
(to be continued)
The broad scope of the Kremlin’s reset plan came with an ambitious launch date: immediately." (Buzzfeed News : September 12, 2017) (my emphasis)
Unfortunately for Putin, the intelligence investigations into the Putin-Trump collusion during the 2016 US presidential elections in the US Senate and House of Congress rather put paid to this bold idea of his.
Now Putin's hope is that in the upcoming elections in Germany this Sunday, the AfD party,
"...could lead the opposition in the Bundestag, a role that traditionally carries additional privileges, such as the presidency of the parliament’s budget committee.
According to a projection published last week by Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper, the far-right party [AfD] could end up with as many of 89 out of 703 members in the Bundestag." (Philip Oltermann (right): The Guardian : Sunday 17 September 2017) (my emphasis)
Such a result would be sweet music to the ears of Putin and his German business buddies, since an AfD presidency of the Bundestag's budget committee would add further pressure for the lifting of the EU sanctions against Putin and his 'siloviki' clan.
Putin must now be praying for the success of the AfD German political party in Sunday's Bundestag elections.
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