A 22-year-old German politician who secretly served in Ukraine’s army now faces expulsion from the pro-Russian Alternative for Germany party after calling his own leadership “Russia-kissers.”

  • plyth@feddit.org
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    5 days ago

    This is exciting. Like foenkyfjutschah I didn’t know. Thanks a lot for the detailed answer.

    This makes the EU more acceptable but it also shows that Germany is less democratic than expected.

    • iglou@programming.dev
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      4 days ago

      It’s a tradeoff. It’s still democratic, as the parliament can in all these instances reject a candidate, while bringing stability by not having endless debates in a potentially fractured parliament on who should be nominated.

      Because the head of state doesn’t pick someone randomly, they pick a candidate that will have the approval of the Parliament. So there is still talks, agreements, compromises with parties of the Parliament, so that the nominated candidate is a candidate that would have likely come out of weeks/months of debates and votes.

      The vote that follows the nomination is a safeguard, to prevent a shitty stuborn head of state from imposing their government.

      So the tradeoff is, slightly less democracy (no debate), faster government appointment (which is desirable for the good of everyone), while keeping a democratic safeguard. And it works, that’s why failing votes following the nominations are extremely rare.