On 18 January 2011, the jury of the Unwort des Jahres, the non-word of the year, chose alternativlos, without alternative, for 2010. Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of her government had used the word since 2009, for example for the bank rescue. The jury gave its reasons. The word suggests that a decision has no alternatives from the start, “und damit auch keine Notwendigkeit der Diskussion und Argumentation.” And therefore no need for discussion and argument. The linguist Horst Dieter Schlosser, who led the jury, called the word “das Basta der Merkel-Regierung.” It was the government’s way of saying basta, that is final.