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Cold war 2.0

Virtual ghost

Virtual ghost

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Jun 6, 2008
Messages
22,145


The details of Ukraine's push.
It is weird to say it but this is indeed the biggest direct attack on Russian soil since WW2.
 
Red Herring

Red Herring

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Virtual ghost said:
The position of the president is only the third most powerful behind Prime minister and speaker of the parliament.
Click to expand...
Do you mean third in protocol or third in actual power? I am asking because in Germany the rank in official protocol is:
- Federal President
- President of the Bundestag (1. chamber)
- Chancelor
- President of the Bundesrat (2. chamber)

But out of these people the chancelor obviously has the most power in everyday politics. The president is mostly ceremonial and only becomes important in times of crisis as he or she can dissolve parliament and call for new elections after three failed attempts of electing a chancelor in the Bundestag or after the chancelor loses a vote of confidence in the Bundestag. The president basically accepts decisions others make (and only very rarely uses their power to reject them).
On the other hand, even the chancelor can not really do much without a majority in the Bundestag so in the end our system is very much based on a broader consensus rather than power in the hands of any one person (lesson learned!). Compared to presidential democracies like the US our head of government actuallyhas relatively little power. The chancelor nominates the cabinet ministers (which have to be rubberstamped by the president) and has "Richtlinienkompetenz" (i.e. the right to decide on and responsibility for the overall political direction of things). However, each minister is responsible for his or her department, so in a coalition (and all governments of postwar Germany have been coalitions) the chancelor actually has limited control over the policies of those ministries that belong to a minister of another party (so the FDP minister of finance can make things difficult for the rest of the government and every single budgetary decision has to be fought over within the government itself).

You probably already know a lot of this but I am also writing for the benefit of anyone else seeing this. ;)
 
Virtual ghost

Virtual ghost

Complex paradigm
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
22,145
Red Herring said:
Do you mean third in protocol or third in actual power? I am asking because in Germany the rank in official protocol is:
- Federal President
- President of the Bundestag (1. chamber)
- Chancelor
- President of the Bundesrat (2. chamber)

But out of these people the chancelor obviously has the most power in everyday politics. The president is mostly ceremonial and only becomes important in times of crisis as he or she can dissolve parliament and call for new elections after three failed attempts of electing a chancelor in the Bundestag or after the chancelor loses a vote of confidence in the Bundestag. The president basically accepts decisions others make (and only very rarely uses their power to reject them).
On the other hand, even the chancelor can not really do much without a majority in the Bundestag so in the end our system is very much based on a broader consensus rather than power in the hands of any one person (lesson learned!). Compared to presidential democracies like the US our head of government actuallyhas relatively little power. The chancelor nominates the cabinet ministers (which have to be rubberstamped by the president) and has "Richtlinienkompetenz" (i.e. the right to decide on and responsibility for the overall political direction of things). However, each minister is responsible for his or her department, so in a coalition (and all governments of postwar Germany have been coalitions) the chancelor actually has limited control over the policies of those ministries that belong to a minister of another party (so the FDP minister of finance can make things difficult for the rest of the government and every single budgetary decision has to be fought over within the government itself).

You probably already know a lot of this but I am also writing for the benefit of anyone else seeing this. ;)
Click to expand...


I am talking about actual political power. My prime minster is basically what is in Germany called Chancellor. Speaker of the parliament is president of Bundstag. President is president and it has quite similar position as in Germany. While our Bundesrat was thrown out of the equation and doesn't exist anymore. Since we have something like 22 smaller population and thus we realized that we don't really need the upper chamber. There is no need to complicate things for a few milion people. However when there is peace it can be argued that the Mayor of the Capital is more powerful than president. The metro area of the capital has 1/4 of entire popualtion and 1/3 of GDP. What is more powerful in practice than mostly ceremonial president. Especially since EU dynamic allows the mayor to lead some kind of it own foreign policy regarding various EU programs.

Yeah, for someone that lives in US this can be confusing. Therefore for them your Chancellor and my prime minister are basically governors. Out parliaments are state governmets, and EU is basically federal government. These are basically the eqivalents on that scale.
 
Virtual ghost

Virtual ghost

Complex paradigm
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
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Virtual ghost said:
Rights groups slam Bulgaria for banning LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’


When something passes in parliament with 2/3 support you can be sure that a decent chunk of mainstream also voted for this. Probably some of the left wing parties were also in the mix (in Europe not all left is liberal in nature).
Click to expand...


Bulgaria’s new anti-LGBTQ+ law is official. Opponents beg EU to take action.

Continuation of the story.




Macron to hold consultations next week to form new government

Carles Puigdemont: How I pulled off my daring escape from Spain

Ukraine can fire our weapons during attack inside Russia, says Canada

Germany: New sabotage warning issued for water supply

Paetongtarn Shinawatra chosen as new Thailand prime minister

Is Libya on the brink of a new civil war?

Decoding China: Seizing the moment in Bangladesh
 
J

JAVO

.
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
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eNTP

Institute for the Study of War

Hamas has rejected optimism from US and international mediators that a ceasefire-hostage agreement is close to being reached.
www.understandingwar.org www.understandingwar.org

I bolded a sentence containing unusually strong language directed at Iran from the US:

The United States and foreign mediators are maintaining pressure on Iran to delay an attack targeting Israel by threatening Iran and highlighting reported ceasefire progress. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani highlighted progress in ceasefire-hostage negotiations during phone calls with acting Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Bagheri Kani following talks in Doha on August 15 and 16.[7] Al Thani warned Bagheri Kani of unspecified consequences if Iran attacked Israel during negotiations in retaliation for Israel killing Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. An unspecified US official speaking to reporters stated that Iran could face “cataclysmic” consequences if it derailed negotiations by conducting a retaliatory strike on Israel.[8] US, Israeli, and Iranian officials cited by the New York Times on August 16 said that Iran is expected to delay its retaliatory strike during ceasefire negotiations.[9] US President Joe Biden reportedly views the deal as the “key. . . to preventing a regional war,” and he said that he “expects” that Iranian leaders will delay or indefinitely postpone a strike if a ceasefire agreement is reached.[10] It remains unclear if “hold off” means that Iranian leaders would decline to mount any retaliatory strike on Israel or just that Iran would delay its strike.
Click to expand...
 

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