What is the difference between "ask somebody to leave their position" and "dismiss" or "remove somebody from their job"? I feel like the former is just a polite way to say the latter.
"After months of increased internal tensions, then chancellor Olaf Scholz asked FDP leader and Finance Minister Christian Lindner to leave the government. "
What does "which would have meant that no one else would have" mean in the following context?
"Buschmann intended to downgrade fare dodging from a criminal offense to an administrative matter, similar to parking wrongly, which would have meant that no one else would have gone to prison for it."
What about "punished " here?
"University of Cologne criminologist Bögelein argues that “fare dodging should be completely removed from penal or administrative law.” For her, this offense is currently being punished twice, by the public transportation company and then by the state. While the public transportation companies demand the payment of a fine, the state punishment comes on top of that."
https://jacobin.com/2025/08/germany-nazi-law-public-transportation
Headline image by kellysikkema on Unsplash
Regarding the 1st question: To "ask somebody to leave their position" hints that the person asked to leave might refuse. By contrast, when "dismiss" or "remove somebody from their job" is used, the person asked to leave has no choice.
In many countries, "heavy crimes" (i.e. felonies) often jail. By contrast, "light crimes" (i.e. misdemeanors) usually involve a financial penalty, but no jail time. Here "a criminal offense" is a felony; a "administrative matter
" is a misdemeanor. Hence by classifying a crime as a misdemeanor, jail time is avoided.
Regarding the 3rd question: I do not know the details to know what precisely the punishment is.
Thank you! I added more context to the third phrase, along with the article link.
Punished in this context is being made to give money or do something because of some wrong thing you did.