Dirndl-Gate

Rainer Brüderle pointing at Katja Suding
not wearing a Dirndl (©dpa)

Remember my blog about the color code for political parties in Germany? Presently the yellow Free Democrats (Liberals), or rather their top candidate for the next federal election in the fall, Rainer Brüdele, are enduring a hostile press campaign and a shitstorm on Twitter. All this ado is about a sexist remark Rainer had made in a hotel bar one year ago to STERN journalist Laura Himmelreich. Pointing at her décolleté he said, "Sie könnten ein Dirndl auch ausfüllen (You too could fill a dirndl)."

Publishing the episode one year later, is this just crude electoral manipulation? It could be deadly for the Liberals scraping the five-percent hurdle, i.e., the number of votes necessary to sit in the next Bundestag (Germany's parliament or congress). Or is the publication nothing else than reporting about everyday Sexism?

In vain Hamburg's leading Free Democrat Katja Suding tried to play down Rainer's faux pas, "Überall, wo Menschen aufeinandertreffen, wird nun einmal auch geflirtet (Wherever people meet there will be philandering)." 

The press, however, knows: Sex sells. Sexism sells even better, in particular in connection with dirty old men.

Do we not have other worries in Germany? As my Norwegian boss frequently said, "I shake my head."

Rainer Brüderle (67) and Laura Himmelreich (29) (©dpa)

Yesterday, on January 30, Rainer Brüderle invited journalists to his routine meet-the-press breakfast. On that occasion, Laura and Rainer saw each other for the first time after one year of abstinence. Contrary to the few attendees usually listening to Rainer's bland political statements, the interest was huge this time, and many journalists fought for Schrippen and coffee.

Everybody was waiting for a statement about the dirndl-gate, but Rainer instead talked about German debts and his party's coalition with Merkel's Christian Democrats. In the end, he stated, "Sexism is a current debate with political relevance. That there are debates in a democracy is an objective legitimate phenomenon." To me, this sounds like phrase-mongering or pompous logorrhea.

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