The real reason why so many German greens prefer Merkel

German Der Spiegel notes that almost half of the country's Green Party voters would like to see Angela Merkel continue as Chancellor:

According to a new survey, some 45 percent of Green Party voters would like to see Angela Merkel remain in the Chancellery following fall elections.

To be sure, 53 percent of those queried by the pollsters at Forsa on behalf of the business daily Handelsblatt said they would like to see a change at the top. But the high share of Merkel supporters shows that the Greens have left their rambunctious beginnings far behind.
On the one hand, that's not terribly surprising. Germany's 1968 generation, out of which the Greens were born, has aged and left radicalism far behind. The Green Party itself has likewise become more staid, and large swaths of the party belong to a similar upper middle class demographic that tends to vote for Merkel's Christian Democrats -- or, in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union, the party to which Stücklen belonged.

Indeed, a study last September found that the Greens have some of the country's richest voters, along with the business-friendly Free Democrats. On average, they earn more than €2,500 per month ($40,000 per year). A majority of Green voters tend to live in big cities and are well educated. In short, they increasingly fall directly into that catchall category of being spiessig, Germany's take on bourgeois.

However, Der Spiegel misses the point. The main reason why so many German greenies prefer Merkel is the fact that the lady - and her formerly conservative CDU/CSU - has adopted most of the policies of the greens, including an absurd energy transition policy (Energiewende), which soon will seriously begin to hurt economic growth in the country.

Majority of Germans opposing Merkel's wasteful euro rescue policy finally get a voice

A clear majority of Germans has already since at least last summer been against throwing more taxpayers' money to Greece and other crisis ridden eurozone countries in order to "save" the common currency. 

Euro-critical Germans have so far not had a chance to voice their opinion through any of the country's established political parties, which all have been for more euro aid. 

However, this is now going to change. Germany will finally get a serious euro-critical party, "Alternative for Germany". The new party will be working for the abolition of the euro by replacing it with national currencies or smaller currency unions. The party is also against further bailout payments to problem eurozone countries, and it opposes the idea of the EU becoming a transfer union. In addition the "Alternative for Germany" demands a "debureaucratization" of the European Union by returning competences back to nation states. 

It will be difficult for the old parties and their supporters in the MSM to maintain that the people behind the new party are a bunch of populist extremists: The list of founding party members is full of present and former economics professors, leading editors and industrialists. The main initiator, University of Hamburg macroeconomics professor Berndt Lucke, was for over thirty years a member of CDU, until he in 2011 had enough of Merkel's failed euro rescue policy. 

Other well known economists supporting the new party are e.g. professor Stefan Homburg (Leibniz Universität Hannover), professor Charles Blankart (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) , professor emeritus Joachim Starbatty (Universität Tübingen), professor emeritus Wilhelm Hankel and professor emeritus Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider. Also the former President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Hans-Olaf Henkel and the well known industrialist Dieter Spethmann are among the supporters. 

"Alternative for Germany" is planning to participate already in the German elections to be held in September, and latest in the euro elections next year. 

It will be interesting to see, whether the German mainstream media will give the new party a decent chance to present itself for the electorate. 

"Alternative for Germany" is a most welcome addition to the political scene in Germany. Hopefully it will inspire eurocritical movements in other EU countries.