A major revolt is underway in the EU. Citizens have finally had enough of Green nonsense. The latest polls provide all the evidence you need. 
The German AfD party is now polling 22 percent ahead of every party other than Union (CDU/CSU).
It’s not just one poll that shows the surge for AfD. Here is a Poll of German Polls as noted by Politico.
AfD Political Stance Via Wikipedia
Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; German pronunciation: is a right-wing populist political party in Germany. AfD is known for its Euroscepticism and opposing immigration to Germany.
The party presented itself as an economic liberal, soft Eurosceptic, and conservative movement in its early years. AfD has subsequently moved further to the right, and expanded its policies under successive leaderships to include opposition to immigration, Islam, and the European Union. Since 2015, AfD’s ideology has been characterized by Islamophobia, anti-immigration, German nationalism, national-conservative, and Euroscepticism.
The AfD is the only party represented in the German Bundestag whose environmental and climate policy is based on the denial of human-caused climate change.
AfD denies that it is racist. Importantly, every other political party in Germany has stated it would not enter a coalition with AfD.
A Total Destruction of the Political Center. Does Anyone Speak for You?
Germany is now approaching the point that even if all the centrist parties united in a super-grand coalition that might not top 50 percent.
I wrote about this recently in A Total Destruction of the Political Center. Does Anyone Speak for You?
German Far-Right AfD Party Wins Mayor’s Office
On March 7, France24 reported German far-right AfD party wins mayor’s office amid record-high polling
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has surged to record highs in opinion polls, and the latest result comes just a week after they won their first district election.
Hannes Loth was elected mayor of the small town of Raguhn-Jessnitz, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, in a run-off against independent candidate Nils Naumann, according to results on the town’s Facebook page.
France’s Le Pen Leads in Presidential Election First-Round Poll
Bloomberg reports France’s Le Pen Leads in Presidential Election First-Round Poll
French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen would lead in the first round of the presidential election with as much as 36% if it took place on Sunday, according to an Ifop poll of voting intentions.
The constitution doesn’t allow Emmanuel Macron to run for a third consecutive term as president in 2027, so the pollster tested some of his allies as potential candidates. These include his former prime minister, Edouard Philippe, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Francois Bayrou, president of centrist party Modem.
In a separate poll of 1,002 adults on March 28-29 by Ifop for Paris Match, 58% said Le Pen understands their concerns and 57% that she’s attached to democratic values, while 52% consider her to be competent and 51% capable of reforming the country.
None of this should be surprising. The costs of the EU’s climate change mandate are soaring and people have had enough of it.
In his July 2023 article, Austerity is Back, Eurointelligence founder Wolfgang Münchau discussed the issue.
The EU’s climate change agenda is now moving into a phase where it starts to cost real money. The German government is just about to pass the domestic heating bill to force homeowners to replace cheap gas heaters with expensive heating pumps. A lot more costly environmental legislation is on the way from Brussels. The phase-out of the motor car will impose burdens on car owners. Opposition to Green policies are one of the causes for the surge in far-right support in Germany.
Now add austerity to the mix. With the return of the fiscal rules comes the return of the hard budget constraint. The Green agenda is the costliest project in the EU’s entire history. It will affect people unevenly. House owners, commuters and farmers will be much worse off than urban dwellers who are renting apartments. Austerity makes it harder for governments to compensate the losers. Brexit-style country-vs-town divisions are opening up.
The math just does not add up. We are reaching the limits of what a decentralised, rules-based EU can do.
The Math Does Not Add Up
Indeed, it doesn’t, not in the US nor the EU.
One difference is the EU had budget rules while the US can pretend there is an unlimited source of funds and minerals to make the climate change agenda work.
For discussion of EU budget rules and alleged austerity please see Is EU Austerity Back? That’s What Eurointelligence Says
Electric Vehicles for Everyone?
On July 19, I asked Electric Vehicles for Everyone? If the Dream Was Met, Would it Help the Environment?
My follow-up post was What Do MishTalk Readers Think About “Electric Vehicles for Everyone?”
No, the math does not add up in the EU or here.
“The costs of the EU’s climate change mandate are soaring and people have had enough of it.”
True. And who wrestled the Greens to the ground and forced them to lie about the cost of the energy transition?
Capitalists. Who keep believing the Earth is flat and has infinite resources, so money will keep growing forever.
So what happens next?
Easy. People who aren’t capitalists will run the Earth. The only question is exactly how many wars till we get there.
Mish,
What’s the Centrist policy on War? Someplace between Mike Pence and Joe Biden?
On all the important issues, both sides agree. It’s the Uniparty. All the cultural stuff is put there to rile up the people. A typical divide and conquer strategy.
The general public is rarely “happy” with any government policy; it doesn’t much matter what the policy is. And they also typically complain loudly about how corporations, small businesses and landlords rip them off.
At the same time they will complain about the searing heat; the droughts , the record rain and floods; the wildfires; and wonder why someone doesn’t do something about it.
In other words people can and will always find something to complain about 🙂
As we both know, we aren’t getting to zero emissions anytime soon, if ever. At some point, something else besides zero emissions is going to have to be tried. That something is going to be geo-engineering on a global scale since some of the ideas (seeding atmosphere with various chemicals) will cost WAY less money than going green in the entire economy. Wait until we start debating whether or not that’s a good idea.
As I said recently, desperate times will call for desperate measures. The problem is that geo engineering could cause more problems than it solves. It might benefit one country while causing catastrophe in another.
And it is already being discussed, if not openly debated.
Time will tell.
In the meantime, all I can do is keep profiting from global warming.
Got oil?
Yeah many countries are considering it with good reason because not all countries are affected equally as we all know.
The problem is the US and Western Europe will debate the pros and cons forever (problems of a democracy). Meanwhile China and India won’t debate it, they will just go ahead and implement it and the whole world will have to deal with the fall out. My point is the US and other Western Countries should be actively engaging China, India and the rest of the world to come up with a consensus plan because if they don’t, one will be implemented for them.
We have a drought here every year, called dry season. No one is going to be able to do anything about it. There was a record flood in the northeast back in the early 1970’s, due to remnants of Hurricane Agnes. No one was talking of global warming then. Record flooding doesn’t need global warming. In 1861 it rained for 45 straight days in California. One of those “atmospheric rivers” that alarmists want to pretend is something new.
F me. Where is the block or ignore button on this site so I don’t have to see the useless sh*t that you post.
It’s funny how your posts start showing up at the same time posts from the mpo45 guy stop. Almost like you’re the same person. How many pseudonyms on this site do you have?
I enjoy reading your useless comments.
California’s never ending drought has ended twice in the last 10 years. The second being last winter.
“John Clauser is the latest Nobel physics laureate to dismiss the notion of a climate crisis. Professor Ivar Giaever, a fellow laureate, is the lead signatory of the World Climate Declaration that states there is no climate emergency.”
Environmentalists have gotten used to by-passing the legislature with mandate after mandate that assume the cost can be absorbed without fatally damaging the economy. What’s crystal clear is that this absolutely won’t work with their climate change remedies. Shifting from a fossil fuel based economy to a rare-earth based economy can only be a century-long process that allows the marketplace to find the most cost-effective way of doing things. The proposed head-long rush into their brave new world would cost a hundred trillion in the US alone, and the middle class that must bear that cost will revolt long before the project is complete. It might result in an actual insurrection rather than the fake Jan 6 thing.
First off, rare-earths are used less and less in renewable energy and the supply keeps going up. This isn’t an issue. Second, we’re already in the middle of the transition. Solar panels and windmills get added every year all around the world. The cost of solar has dropped so much it costs less per kwh than fossil fuel power plants. It’s not costing anywhere near what the oil and gas industry wants everyone to believe.
“These include his former prime minister, Edouard Philippe, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Francois Bayrou, president of centrist party Modem.”
Philippe could be, Le Maire no way, Darmanin is Muslim so I don’t think so and Bayrou is so far out you can’t see him.
France has a particularity in that there are presidential elections once every five years. The same election elects the parliament also for five years so for five years there is no way to change directions even a little bit. It use to be that presidential and parliamentary elections were staggered then someone had a great idea (Chirac) to put them on the same date. There is a Center but those there have no talent.
afd is at 22% and has gained 2%. Doesn’t seem like a seismic shift to me. But, I have no idea how German politics works, so maybe it is.
The German auto makers know if they don’t start making cheap EVs, someone else will, like China and Tesla, and take away a big chunk of their sales. This isn’t being driven by government policy. It’s being driven by economic reality.
I suppose VCR makers probably initially thought DVDs were no threat because you couldn’t record on them and lots of people had VHS tapes. Boy were they wrong.
22% for AfD is enormous.
Up from 10.3% in last national election.
SPD, FDP and Greens formalized an agreement to form a traffic light coalition.
Not doing so hot. 14+18+7=39%
SPD fell from 25.7 to 18%
I stand corrected.
Martin Gurri’s “The Revolt of the Public” is a masterfully written detailed analysis of the collapse of the center and the expert class. The next decade might be the story of how institutions we all take for granted are replaced by thinkers and doer’s from outside the center.
At the end of all the ideological discourse and climate changes theories, the fact that an EV is less expensive to own and operate is where the decision will be made.
Free market Capitalism, unhindered by the Big three or oil lobby.
Knowing domestic nat gas, wind or solar is used to charge them vs OPEC oil is a huge perk though.
.
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But…. Mah ideology!
The record high temperature for July 23 in Los Angeles, is 97 degrees, set in 1890.
On KTLA, the forecast for the San Fernando Valley, for July 23, 2023, predicted high was 100 degrees. The predicted high for Burbank, which sits at the east end of the SFV, was 90 degrees. The temperature in the SFV varies per location. Woodland Hills is typically the hottest area of the valley and is the temperature typically quoted as the predicted temperature for the valley. Woodland Hills is in Los Angeles, but the official temperature is recorded at the downtown Civic Center, which did not exceed 89 degrees on July 23, 2023. The 1890 record is still in tact.
Germany has neither enough sunlight, wind, or natural gas to charge EVs.
They are beginning to realize that.
Sooner, rather than later they need to follow the French model and build a ton of nuclear plants to supply the needed power.
One might wonder why they receive lavish subsidies if this were true. If they are in fact a better deal we are handing out money to rich people for no reason at all. Somehow I thought you might be against this rather than being aroused by it.
“..the fact that an EV is less expensive to own and operate is where the decision will be made.”
Hence why it is mostly not made.
In countries without Big3 (and these days more relevantly Robert Bosch et.al, since the Anglos have long since returned to the stone age technologically and industrially already…) lobbying, you can get a small engined car/suv/what have you, for under $10K. It will take you across Africa. And back. And forth, And… Like a pingpong ball if you wish. Try that in your Model H-for-hype.
BEVs CAN BE insanely cost effective in dense urban settings. In the small and shrinking share of the world which has anything even resembling a reliable power grid, at least. There, the best BEVs are blowing away even the world wide general efficiency champions which are 125cc scooters/bikes, as long as things are dense enough. But those BEVs, Birds et al, which were truly revolutionary, and genuinely added to the transportation mix, are by now, as is par for the course in Idiotopia, mostly banned by idiotocrats cheered on by dimwits (and only dimwits). Can’t cure genuine stupidity, you know.
“you can get a small engined car/suv/what have you, for under $10K. It will take you across Africa. And back. And forth, And… Like a pingpong ball if you wish”
Well said! Environmentally, EV’s have no benefit whatsoever until somewhere around 50K miles or around 70K kilometers when they finally climb back and reach carbon neutral, and as things are now, the batteries will more than likely need to be replaced. The most environmental thing a person can do is keep or buy used ICE vehicles, maintain them well and the planet would be much better off imo.