German President Quits after Home Loan Scandal

[Grouchio]

From the BBC, the Abdication of German President Christian Wulff. What does this mean for Germany?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17072479

[Principe Alessandro]

The German president hasn't so much power, it is mainly a ceremonial figure.

[Mangalore]

From the BBC, the Abdication of German President Christian Wulff. What does this mean for Germany?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17072479

Not much. Wulff was already dead weight for weeks. The official request by a state persecution to remove his immunity was just the final nail in the coffin when the media had slowly stopped badgering him. Since the German president's primary function is to review the legislation put forward to him as a last check only and the main power lies with parliament and the chancellor the main loss is in reputation for this office as a the morale compass of the nation. Particularly since both of Merkel's candidates threw the towel inside their running term it begs the question what is going wrong and I guess the media will once again run articles on bringing in a direct election. The issue is however that the German presidency is more a position for an elder statesman who has the experience but doesn't want or need to interfer into active politics anymore.

Overall Merkel is slowly losing power but since her hard stance on the Euro is popular she has still great polling results so while her party is struggling she is still in a comfortable position. She however asked for the opposition parties to agree on a mutual presidential candidate which indicates her worry about the whole debacle since the current president was her candidate.

The big question are coming state election since her coalition partner is a party on the verge of extinction at the moment so there is a high possibility of further influence in the state chamber being neutralized via coalitions with the opposition parties or completely taken over by them.

[rabenschnabel]

They will be missed.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

They will be missed.

Mind Blown. . . . She didn't get memo? Didn't she get in any trouble for that? Oh wait, I think I've seen Bettina Wulff somewhere before . . .

oh now I remember . . .

[Thorn777]

I love the grey. Its so trendy.

[Condottiere 40K]

Guido Westerwelle for President.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

Guido Westerwelle for President.

No one can reach him the water!!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wester...r/170082881214

What the hell is the difference between Chancellor and President?

The Federal President performs many of the ceremonial duties. The basic idea is that the President greets state guests and gives out prizes, so the chancellor can focus on running the government.

The Constitution is not entirely clear on what the exact duties of the President are but in practice the President has never really operated in any way beyond the purely ceremonial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Germany

[Mangalore]

...


The Federal President performs many of the ceremonial duties. The basic idea is that the President greets state guests and gives out prizes, so the chancellor can focus on running the government.
...

This is not entirely correct.

The president is nominally the highest ranking government seat in the German federal republic.

The chancellor is validated by the president, hence the chancellor has to go to the president if he wants reelections, when he forms a government etc. So while having no power himself and he can't counter parliament e.g. when forming a government the executive is directly confirmed by the president.

Similarily all laws pass through the president's office and are signed by him. If the president finds the law lacking aka violating constitutional rights or seeming to do so he can kick the law back to parliament or have the supreme constitutional court check it. Köhler did so two times when laws seemed lacking and not address constitutional issues in a sufficiently precise manner.

It is true that the German president has few direct powers but as the legislative and executive has to go through him to get appointed or pass laws he is essentially the number one in the hierarchy of the state while the chancellor and the parliament have more practical power since they were invested with their powers by the populace (technically the parliament is the most powerful since it is directly formed via election while the chancellor and government is elected by parliament in turn).

So formally he is quite powerful while effectively parliament takes precedence and the chancellor wields the executive powers. This counter balance was however intentionally and to some extent the main reason
for the presidents acting solely ceremonial and only in exceptional circumstances actively is because they are appointed through a special assembly and aren't legitimized via democratic election.


edit: btw, if you don't get why there's a president. There's a difference between head of state and head of government and alot of parliamentary democracies use the president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government.

It is the same thing. And concerning the reintroduction of the emperor I'd like to paraphrase Graf Lambsdorf, himself somewhere in the line of dynastic succession: "Oh, good Lord, no, not that idiot! The time of germany's monarchy is past and germany does well without it."

[Thorn777]

lol, they might even go that route seeing that the other of the two rightwing partys scores like 2% atm. The president in Germany usually grows out to be a very popular person kissing babys and giving moral speeches.

It would give them some boost again. Though the pics would look akward. No homophobe but it just looks wrong with two suits kissing each other on the stairs.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

What the hell is the difference between Chancellor and President?

[Condottiere 40K]

What the hell is the difference between Chancellor and President?

About the same as Cameron and Elizabeth II.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

So president = Queen, got it.

Wow Germany got weird ever since the Commies got their hands on a part of it.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

So president = Queen, got it.

Wow Germany got weird ever since the Commies got their hands on a part of it.

Na, Americans who still understood the U.S. Constitution took part in writing Germany's basic law. That's why it seems "communist" to today's Americans.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

Na, Americans who still understood the U.S. Constitution took part in writing Germany's basic law. That's why it seems "communist" to today's Americans.

Ironic, no?

[Kitsunegari]

Na, Americans who still understood the U.S. Constitution took part in writing Germany's basic law. That's why it seems "communist" to today's Americans.

I think you're confusing that with Japan's Constitution, but anyway i'm not sure what you're getting at, there have always been vastly disparate interpretations of the US Constitution.

[Condottiere 40K]

If they knew what was coming fifteen years later, they would have insisted on keeping Wilhelm on the throne.

[DaniCatBurger]

They had some presidents that deserve respect like Scheel, Weizsäcker, Rau and Herzog. Köhler could also have been a good one but he quite office too early for reasons hard to understand at least to me from the outside. I guess it's the different mentality, a cultural thing.

[Ahlerich]

They had some presidents that deserve respect like Scheel, Weizsäcker, Rau and Herzog. Köhler could also have been a good one but he quite office too early for reasons hard to understand at least to me from the outside. I guess it's the different mentality, a cultural thing.

köhler was a good president and it was a pity that he stepped down. he was to soft, he had no reason to step down.
the reason was: he held a speech in which he tried to explain why germany needs to be on the military scene again, why we are in afganistan, etc. in his same speech he said that for an export nation like germany an army is important too to defend german trade routes.

some media (deliberately?) misinterpreted his speech and claimed he said germany is participating in wars now for economic reasons. he was offended, he was mad that the press would claim that and he stepped down because he saw the honor of the presidents office violated.

then there were gauck as presidential candidate that was liked by the people and the SPD and there was wulff, a professional politician (unlike köhler who was an economist) wanted as president by merkel and the CDU. too young, no charisma, no archievements, no morals and a greedy guy as we learned later but a 100% politician that wouldnt step down in the first storm which he didnt (the irony)

finally wulff won very close. it was really just a chacellor merkel power insurance game. lets see whos next.
i was mad when wulff got elected, i was mad when he didnt step down for the scandals and personally i am happy that he is gone now a year later. hopefully we will get a charcter, strong morals, ethics and wisdom now to tell the political scene what they are doing wrong and what germany needs to do different.

[Éorl]

I can only agree with Ahlerich's previous post.

I hate the german political party system - it promotes the worst kind of despicable ers the likes of Wulff, Merkel, Guttenberg and the rest of the braindead canaille that pollutes the Bundestag. I've witnessed it myself in the german equvalent of highschool: Two of the greatest s in our class went into local politics for a career - one of them even admitted that he did it because of the monetary advantages. I promised him a guillotine one day.