Ok now I do remind what was one of many reasons I started to write in a blog. Gettings annoying things out of the head. Tomorrow is German election and I had a talk with a non-voter today. His opinion sounds like “I anyway can´t change anything as the bigger parties do win again like always”. I know this guy and he often complains about the political situation in germany. Well, in fact many do since the euro currency.

But talking with a non-voter is strange, really strange. I mean, how can he say that he can´t change anything when there are 34 parties at choice in the german elections? I mean I do get it… he is right as the winner is always either the CDU with the FDP in coalition or SPD with the Greens in coalition and if there is not a majority of votes, then they do form simply a big coalition. Well, that´s indeed crazy and people start to think that this can´t be called democracy.

However, if he does not go to the elections, he will help the parties he dislikes. It´s that easy. It´s because of the 5% hurdle. The big parties are already established and get mostly votes from pensioners who are indoctrinated by the german media (which are by the way biased and full of journalists who are members of the bigger parties). But if somebody does not go vote, then he indirectly helps the established parties because they have already their voters. So what the non-voter is doing, he withdraws mathematical seen an alternative vote from the elections. It´s fractional arithmetic… Partie result is equal to the amount of votes divided by the reference base multiplied with 100%.

Also there is a predetermined price for each elections and the price will be disbursed to the parties who get into the parliament. The more people don´t go vote, the more money the established parties will get, I mean those who always get into the parliaments like that guy mentioned correctly. Also this is indirect support. To be honest, in a democracy it is allowed to stay home on elections and everybody can do it. But if I hear people who are unhappy with the things that happen in the country stay at home, then somebody must tell them, that it is plain stupid. He won´t hurt the established parties if he does not go to the elections. He supports them indirectly.

And now comes the big problem. Germany has a lot of non-voters. Mostly people who are dissatisfied with the big parties. The amount of non-voters was always over 20% in germany since 1990. In 2009 we had 29% non voters. It might not be that different for the 2013 elections tomorrow. Let´s assume there will be again 29% of non-voters. It would be mathematical seen a lost vote potential of 29%… only this number could help a few parties jump over the 5% hurdle. I asked the guy who said that he anyway can´t change anything, if he get´s it and he said again “Nothing will change”. I thought I must draw a deep breath. He does not get that the 29% have a lot of value. It´s his right to stay home but it must be said that some people in other countries still have to fight for the right of voting! So, how can an unhappy person in a democracy say, he can´t change anything? Isn´t it dull to have that kind of thinking?

Then he wanted to tell me that all the parties in germany want to do the same. Wow, he basically puts 34 parties in one bag! He must know a lot about politics. Really, that was the end of our discussion because it does not make sense. I rather think he is too lazy to get his feet to the election office. Because there is no substance in his opinion. He might be right that many of those 34 parties in germany have similar concepts. That does count mainly for the establishes big parties. But to say they all are same, is pretty crazy. There are for example parties like the “Alternative für Deutschland”. They do not want to support the euro currency which is something other parties want to support… if anybody in germany is against the euro currency, he has the possibility to support a partie with the same opinion. The mentioned partie is for example conservative. But there are also left alternatives like “Die Linke” and so much other parties.

It would be hard for me to talk about all 34 parties. But let me say summarized that there never have been so much political alternatives in germany like this time in 2013. There are parties from the left to the right and in between. To say that there is no alternative to the establishes parties, is simply a bad excuse and can´t be considered as a serious argument. I had to stop discuss with that guy.

Myself, I will go to the elections tomorrow because I do think it is important in a democracy to make use of my rights. To show my vote, my opinion. This all had to be written because I do think that somebody who won´t go vote, will at the same time lose legitimation to cry in the future about the bad political situation in the own country. It might be a right to stay home… but it is irrational in my opinion. I´d say… don´t cry if you don´t vote.