Merkel government using World Cup to actually get something done while nobody’s looking
Where are all the ritual howls of protest? No time or interest, it seems. Everybody’s too busy doing the real screaming at the stadiums and public viewing areas at the moment instead. The German government gave the go-ahead on a 3 per cent increase to the value added tax the other day and no one even seemed to care, for instance.
Three other unpopular bills are about to get pushed through the parliament before the World Cup final on July 9, as well: An education system power-swapping plan between federal and state governments allowing Berlin more say at the university level, a major health reform compromise which promises to finally-maybe-perhaps get a tighter hold upon out-of-control health spending and then, gulp, the 2007 Budget.
Wildly popular sporting events and unpopular political decisions are made for each other, it seems. And then everybody goes off on summer vacation afterwards. It’s all pretty clever, really.
I mean, Merkel could rob somebody at gunpoint right now and nobody would notice. Wait a minute, she already has.
Frag nicht, was dein Land für dich tun kann. Frag lieber, wer heute Abend spielt.
Kommentare auf Deutsch? ich bitte darum!
PS: Germany is already getting letters of congratulation and they haven’t even won the World Cup. Not quite yet, I mean.
