L’effet-Katrina en Allemagne

Un point intéressant des élections allemandes concerne l’effet que l’ouragan Katrina et l’inefficacité du système US dans sa réaction auraient éventuellement eu sur les résultats de ces élections. (Le point importait dans la mesure où les USA sont l’archétype du modèle qu’offrent les néolibéraux qui ont fait campagne pour des réformes importantes dans ce sens, — et ont essuyé un échec.)

Dans un texte publié sur le site WSWS.org, Ulrich Rippert, secrétaire national du PSG (parti socialiste allemand opour l’égalité, tendance trotskiste), développe cette question. Il juge considérable l’impact politique de l’événement.

« Millions of people in Germany watched with anger and astonishment as the government of the richest and most powerful nation in the world stood by as the hurricane devastated America’s Gulf Coast. For days, hundreds of thousands of people suffered and many died, having been abandoned and left to their fate. When desperate and half-starved people sought food, police marksmen and special military units were deployed to protect private property. The plight of the population was then seized on as the pretext for a large-scale police and military operation to execute and test out civil war measures

» The close attention paid in Germany to developments in the US was shown in an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung just one day after the Bundestag elections. Under the headline “Rough Times After the Hurricane,” the author wrote: “It is not just that Katrina has exposed the fact that the power supply, transport systems and infrastructure of the world’s largest national economy are ailing in many places.... Everywhere cash is lacking. There are big gaps in the training and education system in many of the poor districts of America’s big cities. Poverty is growing. Forty-six million Americans have no health insurance. Even among the middle classes there are widespread feelings of uncertainty and social disorientation. But the US government seems to be blind to these problems. It desperately clings to the neo-conservative ideology that everyone is responsible for his own fate. Bush wants to overcome the hurricane disaster with old, useless prescriptions....”

» Many people in Germany followed the events in New Orleans, understanding that they revealed where the policies of Merkel, Kirchhof and FDP leader Guido Westerwelle would lead them—and they articulated their opposition at the polling stations... »

Mis en ligne le 22 septembre à 12H36