Germany’s parliamentary assembly has elected Frank-Walter Steinmeier as the country’s president, receiving 931 out of 1239 votes, on Sunday, February 12.
Steinmeier was the candidate of CDU, CSU and SPD, and also supported by The Green Party and FDP.
HIGH NUMBER OF ABSTENTION VOTES
The other powerful candidate for the presidency was an old conservative Albreceht Glaser, who was the candidate of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Glaser obtained 42 votes.
The federal chairperson of the parliament, Norbert Lammert, stated that there were 14 invalid votes while the number of abstention votes was 103. It caught attention that the number of abstention votes are strikingly high.
STEINMEIER AS AN ANTI-LABOR
The social democratic media in Germany has mostly been occupied to whiten the portrait of Frank-Walter Steinmeier by presenting him as “the son of a carpenter father and a worker mother” for the working class.
However, Steinmeier, as a social democrat, has always tried to relieve the potential concerns of the capital while he advances in his political career. He was the creator of an act in 2010, which was one of the most anti-labor acts since the Second World War. He also worked hard for enactment of another anti-labor act called Hartz 4.
STEINMEIER AS A PRO-IMPERIALIST UNDER THE COVER OF A SOCIAL DEMOCRAT
Another step taken by Steinmeier in his political career was his long-lasting attempt to increase the cooperation between BND (the German CIA) and CIA when he was working as the undersecretary of security.
After September 11, it had been covered by the German media for several times that Steinmeier, as the coordinator for intelligence, had shared secret information with the US despite the fact that the Schröder government denied to be a party in the occupation of Iraq.
Steinmeier is also known as the political figure who defends pro-NATO policies the most within the SPD.
His election as the president is a result of his ability to successfully fulfill his duty of being the most effective ‘leftist’ spokesperson of the compatible left and right wing at peace with the capitalist system.
