Share this page!

Alexander Clarkson Profile picture
Twitter logo
27 Sep, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Watching Kretschmer and other senior figures in Sachsen and Sachsen Anhalt CDU go on manoeuvres today has echoes of how in 1990 the CSU stepped in to back the DSU, a Centre Right party they hoped to build up as an East German alternative to the CDU.
The plan hatched by the CSU leadership in Munich (Waigel was more sceptical) was for the DSU to dominate the East German Centre Right as the CSU dominates the Centre Right in Bavaria in order to contain the CDU in West German Länder and limit its power.
The CSU gambit failed. The West CDU leadership under Kohl merged with remnants of an East CDU puppet party that the East German regime had run before 1989 to simulate pluralism, using its assets and personnel to dominate the East German Centre Right and marginalise the DSU
Now Kretschmer, Haselhoff and other East German CDU figures are openly signalling they prefer Söder over Laschet and distancing themselves from the federal CDU. If they end up coordinating more with the CSU than CDU HQ then the DSU model might be back under CDU labels

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Alexander Clarkson

Alexander Clarkson Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @APHClarkson

Alexander Clarkson Profile picture
27 Sep
We're several days from it dawning on UK politicians and journalists that the British army does not have the driver numbers to make more than a marginal impact on a national supply chain crisis
Once this is sorted out, the UK needs a discussion about the unrealistic expectations loaded on its military and how they so threaten to overload it with tasks that it can't properly fulfill its core tasks
"Let's bring in the army" is brought to you from the same people who think that 5000 three month work visas will actually attract enough EU drivers in time to save Christmas
Read 6 tweets
Alexander Clarkson Profile picture
26 Sep
Just before we have another round of "OMFG the East Germans" worth being a more specific. Areas where AfD is heading to second party or largest party status are the MDR Länder of Thüringen, Sachsen Anhalt and Sachsen.

Dynamics in Brandenburg, McPom and East Berlin diverging now
MDR is the regional public broadcaster (part of the ARD federation. Think of German public broadcasting as media Game of Thrones) in Thüringen, Sachsen and Sachsen Anhalt. In the 1990s its TV culture tended to reflect a blend of GDR nostalgia with Right CDU cultural conservatism
Drill down further, and you find substantial sub-regional variation within Sachsen, Sachsen Anhalt and Thüringen. The contrast between Leipzig and Dresden aka West Saxony and East Saxony is quite something. As is differences between Thüringen uni towns and other parts of the Land
Read 5 tweets
Alexander Clarkson Profile picture
26 Sep
People do know that announcing 5000 driver visas today does not mean 5000 drivers suddenly show up tomorrow, right? You're looking at several weeks of bureaucratic process and then recruitment before the first drivers show up.
Factor in need to adjust visa systems, Home Office checks, business sign-on/pay rates/accommodation, recruitment in EU and non-EU (latter if they want the full 5000), drivers getting to the UK and getting briefed, that's at least a month if not more before they hit the road
The UK government is talking about a time-limited 3 month visa for foreign aka EU and non-EU HGV drivers to "save Christmas" that in reality means the earliest you'll see anything close to 5000 of these drivers hit UK roads is late October/early November.
Read 6 tweets
Alexander Clarkson Profile picture
26 Sep
The UK desperately needs a destigmatisation of debate over how its economy and state need migration. For years culture wars distracted from a reality that EU and non-EU migration is an inevitable feature of economic growth that fluctuates depending on labour market demand
EU and non-EU migration alone cannot fix labour shortages, but both are an inevitable part of a mix of policy solutions to alleviate the end of the labour market surplus of the 00s. New conditions for which UK business, political and media elites are psychologically unprepared
How UK elites are psychologically unprepared for global shifts from labour surplus to labour shortage that have been apparent in Europe for years is itself a product of endless culture wars that viewed migration as a symbol of identity rather than an embedded structural process
Read 9 tweets
Alexander Clarkson Profile picture
25 Sep
The EU, US and China have continental economic structures with economies of scale that enable logistics an supply chains to shift assets around to mitigate strains on specific points of the system. The UK like other smaller states struggles because it has less capacity to draw on
The sort of detail that 1st year undergraduates doing industrialisation and state formation learn at university
The EU also has a strategy to shift as much road freight to rail as possible, which the UK used to be a part of.
Read 4 tweets
Alexander Clarkson Profile picture
25 Sep
UK government with legislative power to impose regulations on a sector that improve pay and conditions shocked that sector will not voluntarily improve pay and conditions
Labour shortages need a balance of state measures to open up affordable training, foster pay rises and improve conditions as well as active migrant recruitment policy that competes with other states for a limited pool of skilled workers or workers willing to go through training.
If the UK's attempts to get EU workers falter because EU states face labour shortages in the same sectors, then the UK government is going to have to come to terms with the fact that it will have to compete with the EU for skilled workers from non-EU states like Turkey or Algeria
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @APHClarkson has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @APHClarkson!

Read all threads by @APHClarkson

:(