What’s going on in Germany?
1/5/22
Welcome back to the Odyssey! Today I wanted to go in more depth about the actual problems I will be analyzing.
Covid-19 and Antivaxxers
In March 2020, the German government introduced restrictions of free movement and social/physical distancing provisions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the first time ever that such strict measures affecting individual freedoms were implemented in the country. At that time, these measures received wide support across the German public and the fact that Germany fared relatively well with low infection rates and deaths during the first wave (compared to many of its European neighbors) was widely attributed to these measures. This support broadly continued throughout the second, third and fourth COVID waves.
Starting in April 2020, a loud minority created the ‘Querdenker’ (lateral thinkers) movement which claims that the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal and regional laws to contain the spread of the virus, infringe on citizens' liberties.
Protests started in the southern part of Germany, but quickly spread throughout the country and often turned violent with police officers being injured. Protestors tuned out even when demonstrations didn’t have permissions, social distancing rules were not followed, and protesters didn’t wear face masks. Many of them believed in conspiracy theories and claimed that the government was hiding the truth about the pandemic.
Vaccines became available in spring 2021, but vaccination rates remained low in late 2021 and the government considered a vaccine mandate. This brought new energy to the Querdenker movement’s ‘antivaxers’ (‘Impfgegner’) and led to renewed protests. When new emergency regulations kicked in because of rising infection rates in some parts of the country, protesters gathered in what they called ‘Spaziergaenge’ (strolls). The atmosphere at these strolls is equally tense and heated as it is during official demonstrations. I want to see how this loud minority has impacted the general population’s perception of COVID and vaccines.
Gender in Politics
Despite the fact that for 16 years Germany has had a female chancellor with Angela Merkel, the representation of women in German politics is very low. Currently, only about one third (34.8%) of the Bundestag (German Parliament) are women, a slight increase from 30.7% in the previous Bundestag (2017-2021). In comparison, many other European countries have much higher percentages (Spain: 43.3%; France: 41.6%; Denmark: 41.3%; Finland: 46%; Sweden 46.6%). You can find out more here.
Even worse, of the “Ministerpraesidenten” who head the 16 German Laender (States), only 3 are women. However, under the new Government of Chancellor Scholz, Germany for the first time, has the same number of male (8) and female (8) ministers.
Annalena Baerbock is the first female German Foreign Minister, and with 41 years also the youngest. Since the beginning of the election campaign which she started by running as her party’s candidate for chancellor, she was under enormous scrutiny and had to deal with what seemed an overwhelming amount of sexist comments.
Women politicians continue to be at a disadvantage in the way they are covered by the media and because of gendered media reporting. This ranges from how a candidate’s background is viewed, to the mention of gender, family, leadership, physical appearance, qualifications, etc. I want to see how language models would allow me to quantifiably analyze the difference between the perception of male and female politicians and how this divide hurt Annalena Baerbock’s chances at winning the election for Germany’s Chancellor.
