A Cure for Love
— Doctor, I get a headache when I hit myself with a hammer.
— Then don’t hit yourself with a hammer.
— But when I stop — the headache goes away, and that scares me.
Watching German politics, you can’t miss the clinical loyalty of voters to the traditional coalition of CDU/CSU + SPD. Bit by bit, in the name of democracy and security, Germans are stripped of their rights. And they, with persistence worthy of a better cause, keep voting for the same parties.
It’s done so elegantly and consistently that dictators of bygone eras weep, bowing in awe before such «democracy.»
March 2026.
The Berlin Senate (a CDU/SPD coalition), on the heels of January’s blackout, fast-tracked a bill into the House of Representatives. The law allows authorities to automatically deny information if it touches in any way on 13 sectors: energy, transport, healthcare, media, culture, finance…
38 organizations write an open letter. Nearly 20,000 signatures on a petition. Free press advocates argue that blanket secrecy around urban infrastructure violates the spirit of Article 5 of the Constitution. Meanwhile, proponents point to the state’s constitutional duty to protect public safety and citizens’ lives from terrorist threats.
Be that as it may, on March 26, 2026, the law is passed on an accelerated basis.
From now on, anything inconvenient hides behind the screen of «security.» Democracy has won.
Someone will say: Noblesse oblige, that’s the government’s job. In these turbulent times, sacrificing a bit of freedom for the illusion of security is par for the course for any government.
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But here’s the thing: the exact same song — different words, same chorus — was sung not so long ago.
On April 6, 1968, the newspaper Vecherniy Leningrad runs a piece titled «Do Not Allow the Adoption of Emergency Laws»:
«While in the German Democratic Republic the population is taking the broadest part in discussing the draft of the new socialist constitution of the GDR, in West Germany, behind the backs of the public, the CDU/CSU and the SPD leadership are concluding a secret agreement aimed at railroad — [sic] through the Bundestag a package of emergency laws.»
Today that would be called «Russian propaganda.» Of course — TASS, Vecherniy Leningrad, the GDR, the Cold War. Sound familiar?
But let’s look at the facts. On June 13, 1967 — ten months before that piece — a bill, Drucksache V/1879, is submitted to the Bundestag. Under the grand title «On the Amendment of the Basic Law» hides a whole package of provisions that introduce a regime suspiciously close to martial law. Surveillance without trial. Forced labor. The army deployed inside the country. The suspension of the constitution by a secret committee. And all of it — «to protect democracy.»
A month and a half later, on May 30, 1968, the Bundestag, despite street protests, passes these laws. Formally — all legal, democratic, by the book. In fact — the German constitution received, for the first time, a self-destruct mechanism.
Step by step — German democracy was turned into… (Insert the word of your choice.)
Would it be unreasonable of me to suggest that the electorate’s devotion to these three dinosaurs of German politics borders on madness or an epidemic of sclerosis?
And no, I am not calling you to reckless action. But I am calling you to use that thing called memory.
Thank you for your attention.
This article was made possible by:
Pavel Kubin — text, sources, design;
DeepSeek — translated from Russian
Sources
Vecherniy Leningrad April 6, 1968
Neue Aktionen der Notstandsgegner 17.04.1968
Allies to Yield Last Occupation Powers to Bonn May 28, 1968
Senat will eine Blackbox Verwaltung 04.03.2026
Der Sternmarsch auf Bonn und die Notstandsgesetze
30. Mai 1968: Bundestag beschließt Notstandsgesetze
Bundesrepublik Deutschland Der Bundeskanzler Drucksache V/1879
