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Social justice 'key issue' for German voters

Published: 8 Mar 13 08:36 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20130308-48405.html

Most Germans regard social justice and fairness as the most important issue for Germany's upcoming general election, a recent poll revealed – something the centre-left opposition is hoping to use to unseat Chancellor Merkel.

For 54 percent of voting-age Germans asked by opinion polling association Insa, how a party approached social justice was the most important issue for them in choosing whom to vote for in September.

This was even higher in the over-45 category, in which 60 percent named it as their priority.

Among the smaller parties, this figure was higher still with 80 percent of socialist Left party supporters naming social justice their number one topic. For Green party backers, this was 60 percent, and among Pirate Party fans, 63 percent.

While in the bigger parties, the figures were slightly lower. Primary opposition party the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) has 59 percent of its supporters wanting the most effort to be put into tackling social justice.

Sliding to the right side of the spectrum, 41 percent of the conservative Christian Democrat (CDU) supporters named it as their most important issue while only 22 percent pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) followers did.

Other favoured topics for the 2,008 people asked were healthcare with 31 percent of voters naming it number one. Twenty-nine percent chose tackling unemployment, 28 financial matters, 26 percent family policies and 25 percent education, according to Focus news magazine.

“The topic of social justice is important but it is not the only issue,” said Insa head Hermann Binkert. He added that if all the parties decided to concentrate primarily on this area, the CDU and FDP could damage their support base.

DAPD/The Local/jcw

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

#1
15:07 March 8, 2013 by Wise Up!
Social Justice? Back to the DDR, for sure!
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#2
10:38 March 9, 2013 by DoubleDTown
Nodbody is against "social justice", it sounds great. The problem, what does it mean? To some it means everyone gets a fair chance at an education and nobody should be discriminated against on the color of their skin. To die Linke and their fellow Red-headed nutters it means even people that spend grades 5 to 10 smoking and hanging outside the Getrankemarkt should get enough hand outs to keep them in smokes, beer, and vacations.
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#3
18:42 March 10, 2013 by owlguard
Justice referrs to "under the law" meaning that the law should treat all people justly. When you add the word "social" to justice you are changing its meaning. Too often this term is used to describe outcomes as opposed to opportunity. It is a key plank in any socialist party. But in the world where sound bites pass as news and bumper sticker slogans pass as wisdom, the phrase "social justice" gets lots of praise.
Report abuse »
#4
03:22 March 12, 2013 by hewsmike
Socialism is a great. Until you run out of the other guy's money.
Report abuse »
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