IASGP Election Trip 2009
German Federal Election
The German federal election took place on Sunday 27th September, and here are some (mainly logistical) details on the IASGP’s election trip to be part of it.
Firstly, the official programme will as usual involve discussions with members of each of the ‘Fraktionen’ in the current parliament. We will also be going to one of the main opinion pollsters to get the latest pre-election day numbers (we spoke with Manfred Guellner from Forsa in 2005, for example) and we will also have a number of other ‘events’ (i.e. dinners, receptions) in the evenings on top of this. We will do our best to get tickets to the respective election parties on Sunday night (some are actually very easy to get into, others are not), and we will finish the trip at the Bundespresseamt on Monday morning by attending a public de-briefing by the main opinion pollsters.
So, putting the details to one side for now, the broader picture in terms of timings is as follows; the first meeting will be on Thursday 24th September at around 9.30am/10am. I would therefore recommend – if all else is equal – that you look to arrive in Berlin on Wednesday 23rd September. Our last appointment will come to an end at around midday on Monday 28th September.
The IASGP has a block reservation at the Hotel Sylter Hof from Wednesday-Monday (5 nights). This is the same hotel that we stayed in 2005.
The DAAD has very generously offered to subsidise travel and accommodation costs of trip participants. We are very grateful to them for doing this and we would ask you to remember this DAAD support should any publications come out of your time in Berlin. We will subsequently be able to offer US-based participants up to £600 to cover their flight and accommodation. We will offer UK based participants a maximum of £300. It is extremely important for our credibility as an Association vis-à-vis the organisations hosting us that the entire delegation attends the events we are organising. To this end, we are encouraging all participating members to stay in the Sylter Hof in order to keep our delegation together, and in consequence, the subsidy will only be available to those members who stay in the Sylter Hof and who do so for the entire trip.