[QUOTE=McAdonis;2162837]Both in NL and DE, politicians have admitted that they "tried something" and it was less than a resounding success: "Social Democrat Lodewijk Asscher believes that the legalization of prostitution was "a national mistake. " The Dutch government now plans to tighten the law to combat a rise in forced prostitution. The Germans aren't there yet. The Greens, who played such an instrumental role by supporting the prostitution law 12 years ago, have no regrets. Irmingard Schewe-Gerigk, who was also a leading Green Party parliamentarian at the time the law was passed, says: "The law was good. It's just that we should have implemented it more thoroughly. ".
The 2017 reforms were essentially "trying something else". The fact that it took years of back-and-forth negotiation between the parties suggests that it was not something they were doing for the next election in six months: "For years, both conservative and FDP lawmakers have been pressing to reform the prostitution laws that were passed in 2001 by the governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens led by Chancellor Gerhard Schrder. "..[/QUOTE]I like your optimism, 2033 will probably serve my personal needs. For younger mongers, this can be seen as a possible new doomsday clock. I feel that EU membership may encourage some elements of German politics to gravitate towards an EU consensus. As you mention Merkel's decisions on the immigration crisis, I think it's fair to look at possible impacts of those decisions. The once seemingly invisible political party of Merkel won the recent election by much narrower margins. After winning the elections, formation of the government was not possible for an extended amount of time. Negotiations and alliances with minority political parties were required for the government to finally be formed. I'm not aware what concessions were required to reach these agreements. It's possible that the date you mention based on cyclical changes could be expedited or delayed by similar political developments.
Brexit and debt repayment by Greece, Portugal and other financially challenged countries could potentially cause the collapse of the EU and the Schengen Agreement. That could theoretically delay any changes to the current German laws governing prostitution. It could also add hours to my travel times that could be required for crossing borders.
