[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Program note - "Yes Weekend!"

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Ron Szoke describes this campaign on tonight's "News from Neptune" on UPTV, 
cable channel 6, at 7pm.  --CGE]

	'German Borat' shakes up election

A fictional candidate "campaigning" for Germany's parliamentary elections next 
month would win 18% of the votes if he stood, an opinion poll suggests.

Horst Schlaemmer is not even a real person, let alone a real candidate.

Played by comedian Hape Kerkeling, the spoof would-be chancellor has spiced up a 
campaign criticised as dreary.

His campaign slogan "Yes weekend" is inspired by Barack Obama, and he has 
pledged to replace Germany's national emblem - the eagle - with a bunny.

Horst Schlaemmer has become so popular that his spoof "campaign launch" was 
broadcast live on two TV networks and reportedly attracted more than 100 
journalists.

Free cosmetic surgery

In real life, Hape Kerkeling is a German comedian and TV presenter who has been 
one of the country's most popular impersonators for many years.
	
The 44-year-old once arrived at a German presidential reception dressed up as 
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

He is often compared to British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who has gained 
worldwide fame through his characters Ali G, Borat and Bruno.

Ahead of his new film, he further blurred the lines between fact and fiction by 
launching the Horst Schlaemmer Party.

With his old-fashioned glasses, ratty moustache, grey wig and funny accent, the 
spoof candidate cuts a distinctive figure ahead of Germany's legislative 
elections on 27 September.

Describing his fake party as "conservative, liberal, left-wing and a bit 
ecological", Mr Schlaemmer's manifesto includes proposals like securing a 2,500 
euro (£2,160) monthly salary for all Germans, public funding for sunbeds and 
more cash for cosmetic surgery.

Kerkeling's new movie, Isch Kandidiere (I Candidate), was released in cinemas 
this week and is expected to be a major late-summer hit.
	
The film tells the story of Horst Schlaemmer, the unhappy deputy editor of a 
local paper in a grey city, who decides to run for chancellor.

After running an eclectic campaign, he finally gathers a small 0.4% of the votes.

But in a real-life poll conducted last week for the German newspaper Stern, no 
fewer than 18% of those interviewed said they would vote for Horst Schlaemmer if 
he were to stand in next month's parliamentary elections.

By injecting a dose of humour into the German political race, Mr Schlaemmer has 
boosted interest in an otherwise grey campaign, analysts say.

"Schlaemmer is an alternative to your usual grey-suited politician in Germany," 
Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at the Free University in Berlin, told 
AFP news agency.

"The boring campaign makes Schlaemmer more interesting."


C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> For a spirited discussion of the world's fourth largest economy (with 
> cleavage)   and its relation to the American drive for world hegemony, 
> join Ron Szoke, David Johnson, and Carl Estabrook for "News from 
> Neptune" on Urbana Public Television tonight at 7pm, cable channel 6.
> 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Our Nato ally
> Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:21:30 -0500
> From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
> To: peace-discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
> 
>     "Meine Ruh' ist hin, mein Herz ist schwer,
>     Ich finde sie nimmer und nimmermehr..."
> 
> = one of the few bits of German verse (from Faust) I remember, and it 
> seems to
> fit this peculiar summer of our discontent. (Frank Rich, who's about my 
> age,
> would seem to think so too, judging from his column in yesterday's 
> NYT.)  So I'm
> appending a long and difficult but quite brilliant analysis of German 
> politics
> on the eve of their election.
> 
> Germany is perhaps even more important than the UK to the US 
> neo-colonial war
> against the Middle East. (US planners say that the UK -- with 200+ dead 
> in AfPak
> -- is important only because a real political debate in the UK about the 
> war
> there might awaken the US public.) ...
> 
> ==============================================
> 
>     New Left Review 57, May-June 2009
>     PERRY ANDERSON: A NEW GERMANY?
> 
> [...] complete text on the peace-discuss list and
> 
> <http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2778>
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