Urope’s economic giant Germany is set to hold its federal election on September 24, 2017.
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‘My request to everyone is that they vote, and vote for those parties that adhere 100 per cent to our constitution, ‘ Merkel told MDR radio on Thursday, pointing to the AfD.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has been in office since 2005.
Lagging in the polls with around 22 per cent of voting intentions, far behind Ms Merkel’s conservative CDU which is stable at around 37 per cent, the SPD, led by former EU Parliament President Martin Schulz, is soul-searching. During this period Angela Merkel stood firmly for the unity of Europe.
“The argument that populism had been defeated following the Austrian, French and Dutch elections is premature”. With national conservatism discredited by ties to fascism and collaboration during the war, these parties emerged as an acceptable face of conservatism. These are issues that would have wobbled the most seasoned politicians. The longer that Germans looked at him, though, the less able they seemed to be to actually imagine him as Chancellor. Brexit remains a pain in the EU’s neck.
Martin Hikel, the chairman of the SPD branch in Neukölln, an SPD stronghold in western Berlin and home to the city’s large Turkish community, told The Independent Ms Merkel’s pleasing political style had led to the “depoliticisation” of Germany. Though SDP is in the current coalition, Schulz has thrown his hat in the ring for chancellor.
Founded as an anti-euro party, the AfD recorded a surge in support after it began capitalising on unease in Germany over the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers since 2015. Though it was a humanitarian gesture it had strong economic compulsions. The head of one of the country’s main polling institutes described Mr Schulz as “Merkel with a beard” earlier this year. Analysts say it would be hard for Schulz to claw back the popularity that he had enjoyed earlier.
Its members now sit in 13 of 16 state assemblies and, eyeing the national parliament, have plastered towns and cities with posters carrying the slogans “Burkas?”
We are already seeing signs of this in Germany in Merkel’s discourse and in the stances taken by the Free Democratic Party (FDP), a classical liberal party poised to make a comeback to the Bundestag after a brief hiatus outside it since 2013.
Schulz this week took some succour from Merkel’s slipping poll numbers, hoping for a “last-minute turnaround” linked to “growing unease” in the population. Party leader Christian Lindner has also suggested Germany accept Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, something Merkel has ruled out. The Washington-based think tank recently launched a digital tool to monitor the Twitter activity of a network linked to the German-language account of Kremlin-controlled news website Sputnik. Germany has the lowest unemployment rate in Europe-labour strikes are rare because of excellent labour relation.
Germany has two houses of parliament, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
This may complicate the creation of a coalition and will leave Merkel in need of more compromises with others to construct a government.
In fact, it’s just behind the CDU and the Social Democratic Party in the polls. Will the coalition be a repeat of the past or will new alliances shape up?
The party favors complete closure of Germany’s borders, limiting the number of incoming refugees and prohibiting subsequent immigration of family members. But the SPD risks sliding into irrelevance with a third straight term of playing junior partner to Merkel, and may prefer to rebuild in opposition. However, what may appear to observers overseas like a role model for civilized dialogue over polarization and personal attacks, has left other Germans anxious. There are several possibilities.
“The experience of all elections, national or global, show that the number of undecided people is growing more and more”, Schulz said. Since then, Merkel has been the Anti-Trump.
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The willingness to cross ideological lines that were once considered unalterable is not unique to Merkel. Indeed, given the situation in the rest of Europe and the chaos in many parts of the world, the Germans are thankful for Merkel’s steady policy approach and ability to weather challenges.
