Believers in the European ideal, and I am one, have taken a beating in the 2014 election. Iam one – brought up in a family that saw it as right to have my sister’s penfriend from Bielefeld to stay in 1949, when I was six. The penfriend’s name was Lore and she taught me “Alle meine Entcchen”. I remember with shame being a grumpy little cow at having to share attention from the big people in my life! Anyway – the votes have been given in part because of xenophobia in various places. So I’m writing here just to report that there are corners of the world where the trend is towards the left where I hope there is more inclusivity –at least at local level.
Readers of German can look up the election results for our town here http://www.ilmenau.de/1822-0-Stadtrat+-+Stimmen+der+Bewerber+vorlaeufiges+Ergebnis.htm
and here for the rural district http://wahl.thueringer-allgemeine.de/web/wahl/kommunalwahl-2014/wahlergebnisse , where the (Linke) chair now has the casting vote if the two “camps” vote as may be expected.
On the EU elections, Deutsche Welle writes in both English and German– start here http://www.dw.de/themen/europawahl-2014/s-100984
Again we were reminded yesterday that Germany really does invest in learning from history. I saw the original evidence collected by the Staasi (State Security Service) in 1974. A whole service was set up for people to look at their files. If you know any students of German and/or modern European history who want to do research, I know they will get every assistance and if they need a place to lay their head while here, I can help.
