Stuttgart 21 - The Empire Strikes Back
I've put off writing more about progressive topics, because I'm just too lazy to post about every harebrained, hateful reactionary scheme I come across, i.e. I'm too lazy to post something every other day. I guess everybody knows how the first rush of anger dies down quickly and we get back to business as usual, even if that's exactly what those in power want us to do. I do, however, have to say a few choice words about the abomination that is Stuttgart 21.
Stuttgart 21 is, in short, a project to radically rebuild the city centre of the capital of Baden-Württemberg. The merits of the project to put the main station completely underground, demolish the protected station building, bulldoze the Palace Gardens and sell Deutsche Bahn real estate to private (okay, even more private) investors had been doubtful from the beginning. Resistance had been building rather slowly over the last couple of years, but that was, of course, the problem. The original decisions had been taken in 1995, but back then nobody cared about things that would probably not be realized anyway. I guess that was an intentional strategy. In 2007 a petition to allow a referendum on the issue had garnered more than three times the necessary votes to go ahead, but was ruled illegitimate by the city council, the same body that made the decision in the first place. Am I the only one who has a problem with this kind of non-separation of power? Anyway, protests really picked up last year with weekly demonstrations of thousands of people that haven't let up yet.
What did the politicians do? The same thing they always do. They said they already signed the necessary laws, edicts and contracts. Of course, those are sacrosanct, especially the contracts. There is nothing the majority of the people can do, because they had been stupid enough to vote for the CDU and FDP in the first place. Instead of engaging with people who saw the project as what it was (already twice as expensive as originally estimated and probably four times as much with little chance of actually improving public transport in the region) they just said that everything they did was perfectly legal and the people should just shove it.
During the last couple of months, at long last the SPD came out in favour of stopping the project. A fact that might have something to do with the fact that the Greens are now the largest party in the Stuttgart city council (formerly a predominantly conservative body). Indeed, polls suggest that the conservative coalition in our state would be thrown out if there were elections now. That might be what got a rise out of the blockheads in government. The protesters, who are predominantly conservatives stirred into action by being ignored for too long, are increasingly denounced as illegal "rabble-rousers" and "paid protestors" (in words of our esteemed prime minister). Yesterday the situation escalated during preparations for the tree-cutting and while things are not quite clear yet the situation seems dire.
The police came in centuries, some of them mounted and most of them ready to use violence. Three water cannons were used liberally (especially dangerous in the current cold weather) as was pepper spray. Old people and school-age youths were brutally assaulted and the whole thing has been blamed on the protesters by the politicians, but not - thankfully - by the media. The case made national headlines and even conservative organs come out cautiously in favour of the protesters. I guess not many outside of Germany heard about this, but at least the seems to have got the attention of Russian LJ bloggers who rightly liken the situation to the state of democracy in their own country.
As somebody who saw pensioners (among them my father, a mild-mannered civil servant with a heart condition) take it to the street to tell the government that they won't budge I am still quite astonished how the government could react in such a brutal way (and to be clear - the police doesn't do something like this without authorisation from higher up). More people - peaceful people who didn't do more than block streets or park - have been arrested and injured than during the famous Monday Demonstrations that brought an end to the SED regime of the GDR. Think about it. Our liberal democracy hits back harder and with less provocation than an authoritarian state that had to constantly fear its own citizens. But, of course, our rulers don't have a benevolent overlord in the Kremlin who tells them not to use force - more's the pity.
Stuttgart 21 is, in short, a project to radically rebuild the city centre of the capital of Baden-Württemberg. The merits of the project to put the main station completely underground, demolish the protected station building, bulldoze the Palace Gardens and sell Deutsche Bahn real estate to private (okay, even more private) investors had been doubtful from the beginning. Resistance had been building rather slowly over the last couple of years, but that was, of course, the problem. The original decisions had been taken in 1995, but back then nobody cared about things that would probably not be realized anyway. I guess that was an intentional strategy. In 2007 a petition to allow a referendum on the issue had garnered more than three times the necessary votes to go ahead, but was ruled illegitimate by the city council, the same body that made the decision in the first place. Am I the only one who has a problem with this kind of non-separation of power? Anyway, protests really picked up last year with weekly demonstrations of thousands of people that haven't let up yet.
What did the politicians do? The same thing they always do. They said they already signed the necessary laws, edicts and contracts. Of course, those are sacrosanct, especially the contracts. There is nothing the majority of the people can do, because they had been stupid enough to vote for the CDU and FDP in the first place. Instead of engaging with people who saw the project as what it was (already twice as expensive as originally estimated and probably four times as much with little chance of actually improving public transport in the region) they just said that everything they did was perfectly legal and the people should just shove it.
During the last couple of months, at long last the SPD came out in favour of stopping the project. A fact that might have something to do with the fact that the Greens are now the largest party in the Stuttgart city council (formerly a predominantly conservative body). Indeed, polls suggest that the conservative coalition in our state would be thrown out if there were elections now. That might be what got a rise out of the blockheads in government. The protesters, who are predominantly conservatives stirred into action by being ignored for too long, are increasingly denounced as illegal "rabble-rousers" and "paid protestors" (in words of our esteemed prime minister). Yesterday the situation escalated during preparations for the tree-cutting and while things are not quite clear yet the situation seems dire.
The police came in centuries, some of them mounted and most of them ready to use violence. Three water cannons were used liberally (especially dangerous in the current cold weather) as was pepper spray. Old people and school-age youths were brutally assaulted and the whole thing has been blamed on the protesters by the politicians, but not - thankfully - by the media. The case made national headlines and even conservative organs come out cautiously in favour of the protesters. I guess not many outside of Germany heard about this, but at least the seems to have got the attention of Russian LJ bloggers who rightly liken the situation to the state of democracy in their own country.
As somebody who saw pensioners (among them my father, a mild-mannered civil servant with a heart condition) take it to the street to tell the government that they won't budge I am still quite astonished how the government could react in such a brutal way (and to be clear - the police doesn't do something like this without authorisation from higher up). More people - peaceful people who didn't do more than block streets or park - have been arrested and injured than during the famous Monday Demonstrations that brought an end to the SED regime of the GDR. Think about it. Our liberal democracy hits back harder and with less provocation than an authoritarian state that had to constantly fear its own citizens. But, of course, our rulers don't have a benevolent overlord in the Kremlin who tells them not to use force - more's the pity.