What Happened To Beer & Bratwurst?

The soaring cost of doner kebabs has led to growing calls in Germany for a government subsidy programme to keep the inflation-hit dish, one of the country’s favourites, affordable as politicians report it is frequently cited as a concern in doorstep conversations with voters.

Wow! I guess they must have no potholes in German roads, and no dog crap on their pavements either. 

The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has become so used to being asked about the price of kebabs during public appearances that his government has even posted on social media to explain that price rises are in part due to rising wage and energy costs. “It’s quite striking that everywhere I go, mainly from young people, I’m asked whether there shouldn’t be a price brake for the doner,” Scholz has said.

Ah, Are those 'young people' Hans & Helga in lederhosen, or perhaps something quite different? Go on, guess! 

The far-left Die Linke party has become the latest to seize on the topic, calling, in a proposal it wants to present to parliament, for the introduction of a Dönerpreisbremse or doner kebab price cap, similar to that introduced in some parts of the country to control high rents. It says kebabs are already €10 (£8.60) in some cities, rising from €4 just two years ago.The party recommends a €4.9o price cap, and €2.90 for young people, especially those from lower income backgrounds, for whom it argues the dish – thinly sliced grilled meat topped with finely chopped vegetables, garlic or chilli sauce, and cradled in a folded flatbread – is a daily staple. It suggests every household could receive daily doner vouchers.

Now, that's chutzpah, and proof German left-wing parties are even more deranged than UK ones! Who thought that was even possible?  

Hanna Steinmüller, an MP for the Greens, a party that more usually appeals to people to give up meat, addressed the issue in parliament earlier this year. “For young people right now it is an issue as important as where they will move when they leave home. I know it’s not an everyday issue for many people here,” she said to fellow MPs, “and that …it’s also something that might be ridiculed, but I think as voter representatives we are obliged to highlight these different perspectives”.

Oh, there's no 'might' about it, it'll be ridiculed all right! But it'll be whistling past the graveyard, as how long will it be until Germany's fate is echoed elsewhere in Europe?