Germany’s New Political Leaders Face Big Problems of Their Own Making
Economically troubled Germany just held elections and will soon have a new government. The conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) is likely to create a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which was the dominant force in the last coalition. A government formed by the country’s two traditionally dominant parties is usually termed a “grand coalition,” but the arrangement hardly rates that name now that support for the SDP has plummeted behind that for the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD). That leaves the country’s future uncertain since Germany’s troubles are largely the result of decisions made by the SDP and the CDU/CSU in past governments.
The Collapse of a Coalition Leaves Limited Options
Germany’s outgoing government was a “traffic light coalition” of the SDP (red), the classical liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP, yellow), and the Greens (green). It was an ideologically incoherent arrangement that presided over several years of economic doldrums, dithering over the response to the war in Ukraine, and terrible energy policies. It fell apart when the FDP had enough of fighting with its partners and withdrew from the coalition.
But the FDP—which with its market-oriented views is usually considered a natural partner for the CDU/CSU—was punished by voters. All the coalition participants lost support, but the FDP fell below the 5 percent threshold for participation in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. That left the CDU/CSU as the election’s winner with 28.6 percent of the vote and a choice of forming a coalition with either the anti-immigration AfD, which too often flirts with the country’s Nazi past and drew 20.8 percent, or parties to the left including the Left Party, the descendant of East Germany’s totalitarian ruling regime, which pulled almost 9 percent of votes. Having ruled out the AfD—which is considered untouchable in German politics by everybody but, it seems, voters—that leaves the SDP, with 16.4 percent of the vote, as the only viable partner for cleaning up the country’s mess.
Unfortunately, that mess was largely the handiwork of the two parties which will make up the new government.
Germany’s Self-Inflicted Economic Woes
“A decade ago, Germany wa
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