Many years ago – in 2018, to be precise – a man named Friedrich Merz was in the running to succeed Merkel as chairman of the CDU.
Merz said many interesting things back then. On November 14th 2018, for example, he gave an interview to BILD, in which he denounced Alternative für Deutschland as a party “that does not distance itself from the Right” and said that “this makes it unsuitable for any coalition”. Merz pledged to win back all the CDU voters who had defected to the AfD over the years. “In the short term,” he said, “it will probably be impossible to get rid of the AfD,” but if he were chosen to succeed Merkel, he pledged that he could “cut their support in half”.
The very next day he tweeted the exact same thing – promising to lead the CDU back to 40% in the polls and to “halve the AfD”.
At a regional CDU conference around this time, Merz yet again promised to “cut the AfD in half”, adding that “this really is possible”. If I looked harder, I could probably find even more examples of Merz repeating this exact same promise. He made it such a core component of his campaign for the party chairmanship that the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung observed in retrospect: “The whole idea of Merz as party chairman was based on the notion that he would win back votes that Angela Merkel had lost.”
While Merz was making all of these lofty promises, the AfD was polling around 13%, at least according to Forsa:
Half of 13 is 6.5, and so we can say that in 2018, Merz was promising to make the AfD a 6.5% party. Alas, Merz was not elected chairman of the CDU in 2018, so nobody quite got around to halving the AfD. The office went first to the absurdly named if otherwise forgettable Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. The AfD indeed took a hit on Kramp-Karrenbauer’s watch, but that had everything to do with Covid and nothing to do with this particular pinched woman. Next to the chairmanship came the plump and ineffectual Armin Laschet, who likewise failed to make the AfD a 6.5% party, although the man did have a hand in halving support for his own party, which is something I guess.
Anyway, since late 2021 Merz has been the CDU Chairman, and I have noticed a funny thing about his statements in this period. For some reason Merz has altogether ceased pledging to cut AfD support in half. All of those words from 2018 – they are just totally forgotten now. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the more German voters learn about Merz, the further Merz slips from his goal of driving the AfD into that promised irrelevance.
Today, Germany achieved a significant milestone in this regard. After six weeks in which Merz has trashed every last campaign promise he made while also promising to make everything vastly more expensive in hopes of slightly altering the composition of atmospheric gases, the AfD polled not at half of their 2018 numbers, but at double them.
The latest Forsa poll (conducted for RTL and ntv) has Alternative für Deutschland at a cool 26%. That is its best result in history, and it makes it the strongest party in the Federal Republic. This is the second such poll that places AfD in first place, following an Ipsos survey from April 9th that pegged it at 25%.
Merz has indeed done something to AfD support involving the operand of two. It’s just not exactly what he imagined.
Now all of that rhetoric we one once heard from the cartel parties – about the importance of dealing with the AfD on the issues and of making convincing appeals to the “democratically inclined” among AfD voters – has become yesteryear’s pablum. Nobody cares about that anymore. Because they can’t beat AfD on the issues and AfD voters are never coming back, they’re going to try to ban the AfD now instead. A lot of these people truly believe that Germans shouldn’t be allowed to cast their votes beyond the narrow confines of the political cartel that runs the Federal Republic, so they’ll try to try to remove the opposition from the board entirely, via legal trickery.
It’s coming, and I’ll write more about that tomorrow.
This article originally appeared on Eugyppius’s Substack newsletter. You can subscribe here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Yes Wickes boy I am a bigot. I am an anti-mental illness, anti-pervert, anti-anti-reality, anti-anti-biological gender bigot. So F* off and I will never buy another product from your pervert loving emporium. Enjoy the sodomy from the it/it.
June is now officially Demon month.
Sadly, I’ve recently bought fence and masonry paint from Wickes. I can’t return it because it’s now in situ on the fences and posts. However, it’ll be Screwfix and Toolstation in future, seeing as Wickes doesn’t want my business and prefers to insult customers.
Exactly. Give ’em the Target treatment and watch their share price tank. The stupid arse should’ve just stopped running his gob and kept his idiotic opinions and insults to himself. Wonder how many radical trannies are loyal customers to keep him in business. To be honest though, it’s got to the point where I think there’s way more enablers supporting The Cult of Woke/Pride than there are actual radical trans people.
0.4 % of any population! Ditch the other bigoted 99.6%????
Be aware Toolstation are part of the Wickes group b
Also Benchmarxx which I think is fitted kitchens.
Oh heck, it’ll have to be screwfix, B&Q and local building merchants. I wonder if Selco is independent?
Blimey, I didn’t know that.
Was, no longer is. It belonged to Travis Perkins who were part of the Wickes group, but it – Travis Perkins – demerged from the Wickes group in 2021.
Thank you.
I know you mean well but, Toolstation is Wickes
Yes, I realise it now. That’s one less site to peruse / buy from.
You missed off child-grooming, child-recruiting, child-mutilating pædophiles.
290 upticks to 6 downticks!..that’s pretty much the customer demographic Wicks can now expect though it’s doors (deluded men in frocks)
Having reflected on this for a bit, it is clear that our society is in a profound state of flux. Its sort of a generational battle for power.
For whatever reason, a couple of highly disruptive ideologies have emerged, the woke ideology and the climate change ideology.
Also for whatever reason they’ve gained traction and they are now being used as a means to acquire power and influence.
If you don’t subscribe to one of these ideologies, you’re vulnerable to being taken down. That’s if you matter as a person, if you’re in some position of authority or influence.
You can fight it and face a mob and potentially be destroyed or you can bow down to the new ideology and show your loyalty by proclaiming some stupidity like this poor idiot from Wickes.
The institutions that are charged with selecting the next generation of people in authority are completely infiltrated – schools and universities – and are making sure that only those faithful to the ideology are able to rise to the top.
It’s basically a societal take over, with the established powers and corporations sniffing it out and doing what they can to get on the right side.of it.
You can fight it and face a mob and potentially be destroyed or you can bow down to the new ideology and show your loyalty by proclaiming some stupidity like this poor idiot from Wickes.
Something I consider vastly more probable: This guy is simply getting paid by someone other than his employer for harming his employer’s business. The guy did – after all – become COO of a publically traded company which means he has a calculating machine where ordinary people ought to have conscience and that the chance that he has any genuine idealistic convictions is extremely slight.
It seems to me that the long game is being played. If tobacco companies are achieving higher ESG scores than electric car companies – there must be a final outcome promise for these companies
There’s no game being played. There are these weirdo billionaire twins one of whom claims to be a woman despite he isn’t. And they have a budget for affirmative publicity actions. On the cheap end, they have aging, costumed rent-boys like Dylan Mulvaney, on the expensive end, also-ran athletes and actors and also-CxO porfessionals. And – obviously – a lot of polpoticians in between. Members of the representantocracy are always for hire.
Cultural Marxism…
All controlled by you know who….. But we can’t talk about them..
(I’ll have my posts removed again, even the DS are living in denial)
To the
…. You’ve been Spielberged……
‘Also for whatever reason…’
Academia, Government, media, people in positions of influence, big business have been colonised by ideological Marxist-Socialists the aim of which is to create Socialist Utopia but first the existing cultural, moral, legal, social, economic infrastructure must be reduced to rubble.
Since when is it part of the job duties of the COO of a publically traded company to insult potential customers in a breathtakingly arrogant way, as in
Mr. Longden said most of the population is in a “sort of slightly ignorant but mostly kind position”.
and can someone please tell this clown that being the COO of a publically traded company doesn’t equal being some sort of higher lifeform than mere …. customers.
Another corporation to add to the boycott list. Plenty of alternatives out there, so let them go bust.
John Lewis, PayPal, Sainsbury, Nike, Disney, Netflix …
>>> Can we have a national register of woke corps please so we can leverage our boycotting power?
There’s a good list of corrupted corporations in the comments below yesterday’s article on the DS about tobacco companies ‘wonderful’ ESG ratings. All down to BackRock and it’s acolytes.
Righto, I’m taking my bigoted self to B&Q tomorrow to get my 9.5mm plasterboard.
Quite a few sheets of it. Thank you, Mr Longden, you’ve made my decision easier. I can’t possibly socialise with such a superior enterprise as yours. B&Q is a tad further, but hey ho.
Let me know when you think my money is no longer too bigoted for you.
STOP PRESS: the plasterboard is cheaper at B&Q anyway. And they have a burger van.
“Burger van”
Oooohw! Bugger Wickes!
Looks like Fraser Longdon has read your post! (Downtick)
It is the absolute distain that they seem to hold anyone with views other than their own that I can’t understand. When was there only one way to look at everything.? One truth to see.?
He sounds like a full on flap womble. I’ve used Wickes a lot in the past, but no more. I’ll go to the locally owned builders merchant instead.
Wicks supply a lot of builders, not just diy. I worked in that trade for years and I know they are all trans critics. R.I.P. Wicks
My guess is that most of the staff are “trans critics” too.
What never ceases to amaze me is the lack of understanding of the term bigot. It really is simple, it means not accepting the point of view of others and is almost exclusively used by people who are completely ignorant of the other persons views.
I shall most certainly be informing Wickes that I will no longer be using their outlets due to their bigoted views.
Oxford definition:
“a person who has very strong, unreasonable beliefs or opinions about race, religion or politics and who will not listen to or accept the opinions of anyone who disagrees.”
How is Sharron Davies view unreasonable? I completely agree with her. However, Wickes has no interest in listening to what she says. Who is the bigot here? Ms Davies has most certainly listened to all sides and has put her career on the line. How is someone who listens to all sides and debates the issue the bigot in the room?
Wickes are literally saying “Agree with us or do not buy anything from us”. Well, that is pretty easy for me to do.
Sharron Davies lost Olympic gold to a drugs cheat. That was insult enough, but at least she didn’t lose to a woman with a c**k unlike some of today’s female swimmers. Longden is the bigot.
I agree, that Longden is the bigot here, with his disproportionate convictions to his views, not those who do not agree with those views, and his attitude towards those who do not hold his views smacks of zealotry.
The true bigots are those who see everyone who won’t promote their opinions as bigot.
I will be a bit two faced on this. I haven’t used Wickes for years but they have had a lot of money from me in the past. For now I will stay away but I will be watching for the closing down sale.
When our Wickes in killarney closed down I got a cracking deal on architraves!
R.I.P Wickes: died June 2023
Deepest condolences from Bud light, Target and others!
Long live B and Q!
Nice one Dinger.
If that COO prat wants to call rational adults who care about kids and vulnerable young people that are being groomed and engulfed by this spreading Woke cancer within our societies then I shall wear that ”bigot” badge and put it beside my ”anti-vaxxer” one. But if he supports this then he’s a complete sicko. Look what these parents have done to this little boy. Absolutely insane. No matter which way you look at it the buck stops with the parents.
https://twitter.com/DrLoupis/status/1669022987272478720?cxt=HHwWgICz5Yzkx6kuAAAA
“No matter which way you look at it the buck stops with the parents.”
I could cry. The poor lad.
Off the scale child cruelty.
The damned parents should be serving life.
That’s another one sterilized.
The fallout from this over the next few decades will be massive.
Holy God! I wish I could unsee that
What on earth makes the boss of Wickes think that he needs to monitor the thoughts/opinions of his customers? Just sell us decent, quality DIY stuff and leave the rest alone. Is that so much to ask?
Apparently yes. I wonder how much of his bonus package is linked to insulting customers and promoting a leftist very idiosyncratic view of gender and sex.
I wonder how many penises the COO admits to having.
It’s not about Wicke’s customers.
Every nob like this one who goes full woke with some idiotic statement or action is basically making a play in a power game.
The gamble is that becoming an adherent to this new ideology is a way of elevating himself above others and very aggressively forcing others to follow suit or be left behind.
These people feel emboldened to try this because they have a shield of self victimisation to protect them from any consequences of their words and actions.
Wicked can’t fire him without inviting a mob to call them heartless bigots.
It’s a good power play for anyone with the stomach to pull it off.
Indeed, maybe he even felt his job was under threat for unrelated reasons and decided to make himself untouchable?
“Bigots aren’t welcome in Wickes” What are they going to do, post a member of staff at the door of every shop to question people about their views on transgender issues and refuse entry to anyone who doesn’t give the correct answers?
No doubt they’ve got a team of boffins labouring away in a lab somewhere trying to invent rainbow paint.
I’ve never used Wickes before, but was going to start shopping with them after B&Q tried to charge me £30 to add 4 bricks to a home delivery order (I’m honestly not joking, they were classed as a bulky item) them managed to deliver 3 out of about 10 items that I’d ordered. I think I’ll stick with crap costumer service rather than switch to woke crap.
Find a local builders merchant like Huws & Gray, they are far better, cheaper and better quality. I did, until today, use Wickes for convenience since my two local builders yards don’t open on Sunday.
Try ToolStation. Generally I find them better than Screwfix who had a disastrous lockdown with bloody lines here there and everywhere. They lost a lot of business from me.
For DIY ToolStation are now my go to.
Wickes is the parent company of Toolstation
Bradfords Builders Merchants operate in the west country, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. A good alternative, if you live in that area.
The question they will ask is “what is a woman?”
and if you refuse to answer or mention anything about cervixes or xx chromosomes you’ll be bared for life!
Good!!!
There certainly are an awful lot of Gerald Ratners around lately. For those who are too young, Gerald Ratner ran one of the most popular jewellery chains in the country. He did a speech and described what his stores sold as cheap tat and his customers as fools for buying it. He later said he was joking. His business went into liquidation very quickly.
One person can make a difference: use your vote and your money wisely.
H. Samuel’s
I suggest we all go in to the stores and online asking for rainbow coloured paint. When the pimply youth or middle aged former tradesman says “yer what” we explain his boss doesn’t want out money.
how will Wickes and Toolstation recompense staff for lost bonuses.
F’k’em. Boycott and leave ’em dangling.
One fewer retailer to care about.
When will senior management at these companies learn they are there to make the customer happy by providing them with a service and things they want to buy, and thus make profits for their company and its shareholders. We are not interested in their personal perspectives on life, on politics or on sexuality if they want to promote that they should set up a specific group or get themselves elected as an MP.
Otherwise produce and sell the best products you can at a price to make your customers happy, if you dont want to do that, get out and make way for someone who does.
Sack him.
Seconded.
“they want to promote that they should set up a specific group or get themselves elected as an MP.”
or get themselves help!
On a slightly related topic – involving Oxfam’s recent treatment of an employee who dissented from their LGBTQA+ or whatever stance – I walked past an Oxfam shop today and one of the proud boasts displayed on the shop front was ‘EMPOWERS WOMEN.’
i thought that was the very thing that their stance would not allow them to do; in fact they disempower women by saying that trans men are women and therefore should be treated as such.
Or am I wrong? It’s difficult to tell these days!
Unfortunately they’re “virtuous people” who know dissenters won’t dare to complain.
Imagine if you’d indulged your anger, gone and ripped down the sign while squirting some weird orange powder (trump’s make-up?) claiming some kind of protected-status, leaning heavily on your FSU membership, seeking to drag Toby into a court case.
You’d be toast! The judge would not agree with you. The media would villify you. Your career progression would be over since, due to the publicity you received, every google search would now paint you as a right-wing, racist, transphobic, misogynistic, homophobic bigot (did I miss any of the buzzwords?)
Hats-off. It’s effective.
I’m considering transitioning so I can get out of DIY jobs (I live in the north where women leave that sort of thing to the men). However, if I do that apparently I’ll be welcome in Wickes. I’m so conflicted right now …
But you’ll no longer be able to pick heavy things up! ..ergo, no more DIY! Sorted
The primary cause of all this is the Equalities Act which has led to unintended consequences. It needs to be repealed; fat chance of that! We are already all equal under the law.
But ditto for the Climate Change Act.
Sorry mate, you can’t say Fat! It’s unlawfully shaming!
I have been avoiding them for some time, they seem to embrace the more extreme end of the ‘TQWERTY+^*#’ movement with a gusto. Sickening.
I just wonder when shareholders are going to start suing managers for breach of fiduciary duty, reducing shareholder value.
F Wicks! Never going there again!
The bald headed brainless tw^t!
It’s what you call, “doing a Bud”
Here’s my email to
anna.glover@wickes.co.uk
please feel free to notify her of your thoughts on their company
“Wickes can go and sod off forever !
From a deeply bigoted, once, long time customer!
Never again!”
The Twitter email contains some useful contact points. anna.glover@wickes.co.uk; ella.farthing@wickes.co.uk I’ve emailed them to advise that any share of the 5-figure sum my company spends per year on building maintenance that might have gone to them in that past will henceforth be going to their competitors. If others who probably spend much more do the same these moral free morons will pay for this in their quarterly figures. I understand that this sort of blx is inspired by seeking some ESG scoring as part of some corporate groupthink; If Chief Operating Officers have so little understanding of their business that they think only 10% might disagree but, driven merely by convenience would not buy elsewhere, they have another think coming. 100% of the 5 others in our small company will not now be buying from Wickes for their own needs either.
You will soon find all large companies (and all companies in general) will sign up to this crap. They don’t suddenly get around boardroom tables and suffer from a severe dose of morality. They are doing it for business reasons because they don’t want to lose out in the long-term where if they don’t subscribe to this crap they will be cancelled in the global market place.
Well done
In essence saying, if you disagree with me you’re a bigot.
Goodbye free speech, debate and discussion.
The corporations are all lining up to be “stakeholders” in the ESG. (Environmental and Social Governance)-They know they risk losing the ability to do business in the future unless they sign up to the woke agenda. They might lose customers in the short term but unless you subscribe you will be forced out of the marketplace where only those with high social justice scores will survive. ——-ie TYRANNY
Carnage Carney comes to mind:
‘Those who don’t come along with us will be left behind.’
Or something to that effect.