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Topic: Can Germany’s New Chancellor Revive the Left in Europe?

Last December, as he was plotting what most considered to be a hopeless bid to become Germany’s next chancellor, Olaf Scholz interrupted his campaign preparations for a video call with an American philosopher.
去年12月，蕭茲策畫競選德國下任總理，被多數人認為毫無希望之際，他為了與一名美國哲學教授視訊通話而暫停參選準備工作。

Scholz, a Social Democrat, wanted to talk to the philosopher, Michael J. Sandel of Harvard, about why center-left parties like his had been losing working-class voters to populists, and the two men spent an hour discussing a seemingly simple theme that would become the centerpiece of the Scholz campaign: “Respect.”
社會民主黨籍的蕭茲想跟美國哈佛大學哲學教授桑德爾談談，像他的黨這類中間偏左政黨為何失去勞動階級選民，眼看這些人轉而支持民粹主義者。兩人花了一小時討論一個看似簡單、後來成為蕭茲競選骨幹的主題「尊重」。

Scholz is Germany’s ninth postwar chancellor — and the first Social Democrat in 16 years — succeeding Angela Merkel and heading a three-party coalition government. Defying polls and pundits, he led his 158-year-old party from the precipice of irrelevance to an unlikely victory — and now wants to show that the center-left can again become a political force in Europe.
蕭茲是德國戰後第九位總理，也是16年來首位社民黨籍總理，接替梅克爾並領導三黨聯合政府。他打破民調和專家預測，帶領他那成立158年的政黨，走出被認為無關緊要的險境，取得難以置信的勝利，如今他希望展現中間偏左勢力能再度成為歐洲一支政治力量。

For the center-left in Europe, Scholz’s victory comes at a critical moment. Over the past decade, many of the parties that once dominated European politics have become almost obsolete, seemingly bereft of ideas and largely abandoned by their working-class base.
對歐洲中間偏左勢力而言，蕭茲勝選的時機很重要。過去十年來，許多一度主導歐洲政治的這類政黨變得幾乎被淘汰，他們看來沒有主張，而且大致被他們的勞動階級基本盤放棄。

The political energy has been on the right, especially the populist far right, with many American conservatives flocking to countries like Hungary to study the “illiberal democracy” of Viktor Orban, that nation’s far-right prime minister.
政治能量在右派這邊，尤其是民粹極右派，許多美國保守派人士湧入匈牙利這類國家，研究該國極右派總理奧班的「不自由民主思想」。

“The biggest concern in politics for me is that our liberal democracies are coming increasingly under pressure,” Mr. Scholz says about himself on the Social Democrats’ website. “We have to solve the problems so that the cheap slogans of the populists don’t catch.”
蕭茲在社民黨網站上描述自己：「對我而言政治上最大的憂慮是，我們的自由民主政體承受愈來愈大的壓力。我們必須解決這些問題，好讓民粹主義者的廉價口號無法打動人心。」

Last year, in the middle of the first Covid-19 lockdown, Mr. Scholz read Professor Sandel’s latest book, “The Tyranny of Merit” in which the Harvard philosopher argued that the meritocratic narrative of education as an engine of social mobility had fueled resentment and contributed to the rise of populists like Mr. Trump.
去年德國實施首次新冠肺炎防疫封鎖時，蕭茲閱讀了桑德爾教授最新著作「成功的反思」，這位哈佛哲學教授在書中主張，菁英領導體制陳述的「教育是社會流動的動力」，助長憤恨並促成美國前總統川普這種民粹政治人物崛起。

“The backlash of 2016 vividly expressed that simply telling people, ‘You can make it if you try,’ was not an adequate response to the wage stagnation and job loss brought about by globalization,” Professor Sandel said in an interview. “What Social Democratic elites missed was the insult implicit in this response to inequality, because what it said was, ‘If you’re struggling in the new economy, your failure is your fault.’”
桑德爾受訪時說：「2016年的強烈反應鮮明表達出，僅僅告訴人們『去嘗試就能做到』，並非對全球化造成的薪資停滯和失業的適切回應。社民黨菁英沒注意的是，這種對於不平等現象的回應隱含著侮辱，因為它說的是，『如果你在新經濟裡苦苦掙扎，你失敗是你自己的錯』。」Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5970225

Next Article

Topic: Europe’s COVID Culture War Plays Out in Pockets of Germany

Sven Müller is proudly unvaccinated. He thinks COVID-19 vaccines are neither effective nor safe but a way to make money for pharmaceutical companies and corrupt politicians who are taking away his freedom.
斯凡．穆勒對未接種疫苗感到自豪。他認為新冠疫苗既不有效也不安全，是幫製藥公司及剝奪他自由的腐敗政客賺錢的一種方式。

Under state rules to stem coronavirus infections, he is no longer allowed to go to restaurants, to the bowling alley, to the cinema or to the hairdresser. From next week, he will be barred from entering most shops, too. But that has only strengthened his resolve.
遏制新冠病毒感染的邦法規定，他不得進入餐館、保齡球館、電影院或找理髮師。從下周起，他還被禁止進入多數商店，但這只會堅定他的決心。

“They can’t break me,” said Müller, 40, a bar owner in the town of Annaberg-Buchholz, in the Ore Mountain region in the eastern state of Saxony where the vaccination rate is 44% — the lowest in Germany.
40歲的穆勒說：「他們打不倒我。」他是德東薩克森邦厄爾士山區安娜貝格布赫霍爾茨鎮的一名酒吧
老闆，當地疫苗接種率是全德國最低的44%。

Müller personifies a problem that is as sharp in some parts of Europe as it is in the United States. If Germany had red and blue states, Saxony would be crimson. In places like this, pockets of unvaccinated people are driving the latest round of contagion, filling strained hospital wards, putting economic recoveries at risk and sending governments scrambling to head off a fourth wave of the pandemic.
歐洲某些地區，有個問題與美國一樣激烈，穆勒是此事化身。若德國有紅州和藍州，薩克森邦將是深紅。在這樣的地方，一小群未接種疫苗的人正引發最新一波疫情，使得捉襟見肘的醫院病房人滿為患，令經濟復甦面臨風險，並讓政府在阻止第四波疫情爆發上疲於奔命。

Western European governments are resorting increasingly to thinly veiled coercion with a mixture of mandates, inducements and punishments.
西歐國家政府正逐漸採取幾乎不加掩飾的強制手段，包括強制令、誘導及處罰。

In many countries, it is working. When President Emmanuel Macron announced in July that vaccine passports would be required to enter most social venues, France — where anti-vaccine sentiment was strong — was one of the least vaccinated countries in Europe. Today it has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
在許多國家，此舉正在發揮作用。今年7月，法國總統馬克宏宣布，進入大多數社交場所必須持有疫苗護照。當時，反疫苗情緒強烈的法國是歐洲接種疫苗最少的國家之一。如今它是世界上疫苗接種率最高國家之一。

Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy followed Macron’s lead with even tougher measures. There, and in Spain, too, attempts by populist parties to stoke a broad-based anti-vaccine backlash have largely been snuffed out.
義大利總理德拉吉跟隨馬克宏帶領，採取了更嚴厲措施。在西班牙，民粹主義政黨激起廣大反疫苗反對聲浪的企圖，基本上也被撲滅。

But regional resistance against the coronavirus vaccine remains. In Central and Eastern Europe — and in the German-speaking countries and regions bordering them — the problem is more stubborn.
但地區性抗拒疫苗的情況依舊存在。在中歐、東歐及相鄰的德語國家和地區，這個問題更棘手。

In Italy, the northern province of Bolzano — bordering Austria and Switzerland, where 70% of the population is German-speaking — has the country’s lowest vaccination rate.
在義大利，靠近奧地利與瑞士邊界的北部省分波爾察諾有70%人口講德語，該省疫苗接種率全國最低。

“There is some correlation with far-right parties, but the main reason is this trust in nature,” said Patrick Franzoni, a doctor who spearheads the inoculation campaign in the province. Especially in the Alps, he said, the German-speaking population trusts fresh air, organic produce and herbal teas more than traditional drugs.
在該省率先發起疫苗接種運動的醫師派崔克．佛蘭佐尼說：「這與極右翼政黨有些關係，但主要原因是對自然的信任。」他表示，尤其在阿爾卑斯山區，說德語的民眾更相信新鮮空氣、有機農產品與花草茶，而不是傳統藥物。Source article : https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5919791

Next Article

Topic: It's Election Season in Germany. No Charisma, Please!

The most popular politician who would like to be chancellor isn’t on the ballot. The leading candidate is so boring people compare him to a machine. Instead of “Yes, We Can!” voters are being fired up with promises of “Stability.”
可能成為總理的最受歡迎政客，不在選票上。居於領先的候選人太無趣，人們將他和機器相比。沒有「是的，我們能！」選民對各種「穩定」的承諾感到激憤。

Germany is having its most important election in a generation but you would never know it. The newspaper Die Welt recently asked in a headline: “Is this the most boring election ever?”
德國正舉行一個世代中最重要的一次選舉，但你可能不會知道。《世界報》最近在標題這樣問，「這是歷來最無聊的一次選舉嗎？」

Yes and no.
是，也不是。

The campaign to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel after 16 years of her dominating German and European politics is the tightest in Germany since 2005, and it just got tighter. The Social Democrats, written off as recently as a month ago, have overtaken Merkel’s conservatives for the first time in years.
在總理梅克爾主導德國和歐洲政治16年後，這場準備取代她的競選是2005年以來最激烈的，且會更緊繃。直到一個月前都還很邊緣的社會民主黨，已超前梅克爾的保守派系，是近年首見。

But the campaign has also revealed a charisma vacuum that is at once typical of postwar German politics and exceptional for just how bland Merkel’s two most likely successors are. No party is polling more than 25%, and for much of the race the candidate the public has preferred was none of the above.
不過這次競選也顯露領袖魅力的真空狀態，這是戰後德國政治的常態，尤其顯示最有可能接替梅克爾的兩個人有多平淡。沒有政黨在民調中支持率超過25%，而競選中大多數時間，大眾偏好的候選人也非上述兩位。

Whoever wins, however, will have the job of shepherding the continent’s largest economy, making that person one of Europe’s most important leaders, which has left some observers wondering if the charisma deficit will extend to a leadership deficit as well.
然而，不論誰會勝出，將負責帶領歐陸最大經濟體，成為歐洲最重要的領袖之一，這也讓一些觀察家想知道，欠缺領袖魅力是否也會延伸為欠缺領袖能力。

While the election outcome may be exciting, the two leading candidates are anything but.
選舉結果也許令人興奮，兩名領先的候選人卻不讓人這麼覺得。

Less than a month before the vote, the field is being led by two male suit-wearing career politicians — one balding, one bespectacled, both over 60 — who represent the parties that have governed the country jointly for the better part of two decades.
距離投票日不到一個月，選舉由兩個穿西裝男性職業政客領先，一個禿頭，一個戴眼鏡，兩人都年過60，他們代表的政黨在過去20年中大部分時候聯合治理國家。

There is Armin Laschet, the governor of the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia, who is running for Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats. And then there is Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat who is Merkel’s finance minister and vice chancellor.
北萊因–西伐利亞邦邦總理拉謝特，代表梅克爾的保守派基督教民主黨參選。社會民主黨的蕭茲，是梅克爾的財政部長及副總理。

The candidate of change, Annalena Baerbock, the 40-year-old co-leader of the Greens, has a bold reform agenda and plenty of verve — and has been lagging in the polls after a brief surge before the summer.
代表改變的候選人，是40歲的綠黨共同黨魁貝爾伯克，提出大膽的改革政見並充滿活力，她在夏季之前支持度短暫上升，目前落後。

It’s a nail-biter, German-style: Who can most effectively channel stability and continuity? Or put another way: Who can channel Merkel?
這是德式的緊張：誰能最有效引領穩定與延續，或者說，誰能複製梅克爾？

For now it seems to be Scholz — a man Germans have long known as the “Scholz-o-mat” or the “Scholz machine” — a technocrat and veteran politician who can seem almost robotically on message. Where others have slipped up in the campaign, he has avoided mistakes, mostly by saying very little.
目前看來似是蕭茲，德國人認識已久的「蕭茲機器人」或「蕭茲機器」，一名技術官僚及資深政客，傳達訊息時像是機器人。其他候選人在選戰中不小心失言時，他避免犯錯，大多數是因說得很少。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5739953

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