Big news out of Germany – the SPD was wiped out in my birth state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, after being in power there for almost 40 years.
The CDU picked up eight percentage points, allowing them to form a governing coalition with the FDP. This was the last red-green state government left in Germany, and it was soundly defeated.
Davids Medienkritik has more here.

The SPD chairman Mutefering had compared hedge funds investing in Germany to ‘swarms of locusts’ and the cover story in the magazine of IG Metall featured a picture of a mosquito with a gold tooth and an Uncle Sam top hot. This was a rather chilling comparison, as it closely mirrored Nazi-era propaganda. You can see the similarities between the Nazi cartoon and the IG Metall cartoon at Davids Medienkritik here.

Thankfully, this anti-Americanism campaign failed in NRW. Schroeder has called for early elections this fall. The CDU will run Andrea Merkel as their candidate, a pro-U.S. physicist from East Germany. It will be an interesting campaign; hopefully, the propaganda campaigns don’t get out of hand… Bad memories…

The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund has an informative roundup here.

Dad, what were your impressions of the political and socio-economic climate during your visit?
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 5/23/2005 03:01:00 PM