Do politicians speak the same language as the rest of us? This term describes an essential step towards reaching any government deal in Germany – but one which may leave newcomers bewildered.
Readers may have noticed headlines this week about parties in Berlin continuing talks on a possible state coalition government. The reports have focused on ongoing Sondierungsgespräche between the Left Party, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.
But what exactly is a Sondierung, and why does Germany seem to have so many of them?
What does Sondierung mean?
Sondierung (plural: Sondierungen) is a feminine noun – die Sondierung. In its broadest sense, it means a probing, sounding-out or exploratory investigation.
The word comes from the verb sondieren, meaning “to probe” or “to test the waters”. German borrowed sondieren from the French verb sonder, which originally referred to measuring the depth of water with a sounding line.
The image is quite a useful one. Before jumping in, you first check how deep the water is.
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In political reporting, the term Sondierungsgespräche (exploratory talks) refers to preliminary discussions between parties to determine whether they have enough common ground to justify entering formal coalition negotiations, known as Koalitionsverhandlungen.
Outside politics, the word also appears in technical fields. Engineers may carry out Sondierungen to assess ground conditions, doctors can sondieren a wound or cavity and construction projects often involve Kampfmittelsondierungen to search for unexploded wartime ordnance.
Why do I need to know Sondierung?
If you follow German news for more than about ten minutes after an election, you’ll almost certainly hear someone use the word Sondierung.
Germany’s proportional electoral system makes coalition governments the norm rather than the exception. Since parties rarely win outright majorities, potential governing partners first meet for Sondierungsgespräche to see whether cooperation is realistic.
Take the exploratory talks currently under way in Berlin between the state chapters of the Left Party, the SPD and the Greens. Despite the attention they are attracting, they aren’t yet formal coalition negotiations.
The parties are simply trying to establish whether enough areas of agreement exist to make the next step worthwhile.
The process has become such a fixture of German political life that the politically-minded may follow Sondierungen almost as closely as the election results themselves.
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Use it like this:
Die Parteien setzen ihre Sondierung nach einer kurzen Unterbrechung fort.
The parties are continuing their exploratory talks after a brief interruption.
Nach einer ersten Sondierung des Arbeitsmarktes bewarb er sich bei mehreren Firmen.
After an initial survey of the job market, he applied to several companies.
Vor der offiziellen Entscheidung wollte sie erst die Stimmung im Team sondieren.
Before making an official decision, she wanted to gauge the mood in the team.
Die Sondierungsgespräche verliefen konstruktiv, aber noch ohne konkrete Ergebnisse.
The exploratory talks were constructive, but haven’t yet produced any concrete results.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thelocal.de
