In two weeks there are elections in germany for the state parliament.

Say yes to FLOSS

I’m a member of the green party in Germany, and they again reflect my views very much. They focus a lot on privacy, freedom, equality and peace.

It is very unlikely that they will be part of the upcoming government (but they have been for the last seven years; unlike to the US where it’s basically an either-or voting, we have more realistic choice here). It’s 99% sure that the conservatives will be leading government, either with the german socialists (who have nothing to do with socialism) or the liberals. Their campaign is focussed around unemployment, and basically they promise that unemployment will decrease by cutting social security. They also want to increase security a lot (not that we have a high terror risk anyway…) and don’t really care about privacy, freedom, equality or peace. They would sacrifice any of them to increase economical growth (because they expect that this would decrease unemployment, although there is serious doubt about that… it’s not like we wouldn’t produce enough. We produce more than we can sell, basically…)

Anyway, it’s been very disappointing watching their campaigns. People don’t care about their privacy, they want somebody to tell them “we’re going to do everything different (but don’t yet know what exactly), and it will be better afterwards”. Or - the new left-wing party - “we’re going to do everything dfferent, and it will be better afterwards (when we find out how it actually works)”. While a party like the greens, who have actively been pushing e.g. regenerative energies (it is expected that in a few years wind power will be the cheapest energy source) - and germany is very strong at that, and there have been thousands of new jobs in this field - is not being credited for that. People want promises, not real solutions. :-(