By Ian | 16 June, 2016
A petition has been started asking “Who shall be the next president - #Charles4P”
Once again Germany is going to select and elect a new Head of State - A Federal President. Although it will be in February next year, people are already starting to talk about it. The role is more of a representative function, such as representing Germany abroad, signing laws, doing the formal appointing and dismissing of politicians.
Interesting is the question “What German positive values do the Germans have?”
The topics which came to my mind are federalism, worker’s participation, team spirit, openness to new concepts and hospitality, the desire for sustainability, for ecology, harmony, keeping the diversity of life and cultures. Then we also have “Gemütlichkeit” for which their is no real English translation.
Another question which popped up was “What kind of Germany should the president represent?” Germany has changed over the last 40 years. I find it generally an open minded society: They are open to new ideas, dynamic, and friendly - there is a certain amount of freshness there.
And what kind of president should he be? Due to the near vagueness of the job, as soon as the president does something socially, they get a nickname. We have had the singing president (Scheel) or the rambling president (Carstens). Should they be able to start discussions in which way Germany should develop in the next 5 years or point out social problems which politics prefer not to ignore?
…Interesting topics to reflect on.
A link to the petition (in German): https://www.change.org/p/deutschland-sucht-den-super-pr%C3%A4sidenten-und-alle-kennen-ihn-bereits-charles4p