Sunday, December 19, 2010

A Taste of Germany's Political Structure

In Germany, there are two major political parties in their Bundestag (our Congress):  the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), kind of like our Republican Party, and the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany), which is kind of like our Democratic Party.  Both parties are democratic, but the divide is based on conservative and liberal democratic approaches. 

In Germany's general elections, the people vote for members to represent them in the Bundestag.  The Bundestag members then elect a Bundes Chancellor, whom today is Angela Merkel (CDU).  This is just a brief synopsis of how their system works.  It's similar to how we receive a Speaker of the House; we elect members of Congress, and the members elect a Speaker. 

The "congresswoman" I'm pictured with above, is Michaela Noll, and she's our district's member of the Bundestag.  She's in the CDU Party.  Ms. Noll met with the other exchange student I and in this program, that live in her district she represents.  We had dinner at Zwoelf Apostel (Twelve Apostles) restaurant.