Germany’s SPD embarrassed by new canine member

Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) were forced on Tuesday to declare that a three-year old dog called Lima would not be allowed to vote with party members on a coalition deal with Angela Merkel’s conservatives, despite joining the party.

Top-selling Bild daily splashed a photo of a floppy eared brown and white dog wearing a red scarf, the SPD’s colour, on Tuesday under the headline: “This dog can vote on the grand coalition”.

The paper reported how Lima had received a party card after an application was apparently made on the dog’s behalf to become a party member on Feb. 6. Personal details on the application included her gender and put her occupation as unemployed and her age at 21, in dog years.

The daily did not disclose who originated the application.

All party members are entitled to vote in the postal ballot which started on Tuesday and ends on March 2 on a coalition deal for Europe’s biggest economy which could decide the future of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

If SPD members reject it, the SPD will not be able to share power with the conservatives and either a new election or minority government is likely.

Andrea Nahles, expected to be chosen as SPD leader in April, was forced to respond to the question posed by Bild, whether manipulation of the vote was possible.

“A dog can’t vote,” Andrea Nahles said, saying the party would look into legal steps if there had been deception over a party member’s identity.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.