Merkel coalition faces post mortem on Bavaria poll debacle
BERLIN: The three parties in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fragile coalition government were facing up to an election debacle in the southern state of Bavaria.
The Christian Social Union (CSU) from Merkel’s conservative camp took a 10- point dive in Sunday’s vote to lose its absolute majority in the Alpine state it has ruled since the 1960s. And the other coalition partner, the centre- left Social Democrats ( SPD), dropped below 10 per cent, halving their support in their worst ever result in any state poll.
The biggest winner was the Greens, who surged to become the second strongest party with 18 per cent, while the far- right Alternative for Germany (AfD) celebrated its entry into the state assembly with 10 per cent.
The Sueddeutsche daily commented that Merkel’s alliance faces ‘a fight for its survival’, following the dramatic losses of the ‘so- called people’s parties’ as big- tent political groupings are known in Germany.
Spiegel Online commented that although “the epicentre of the political earthquake was in Bavaria ... the tidal wave could sweep away the federal government”. The punishing results for the CSU and SPD were widely seen as a rejection of months of ugly infighting, mostly about immigration, between the parties in Merkel’s uneasy leftright ‘grand coalition’.
The CSU’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has harshly criticised Merkel and the labour party SPD over their more liberal stance on immigration, repeatedly bringing their fragile alliance to the brink of collapse.
The battles this summer, one centred on securing German borders against asylum seekers, have distracted Merkel’s fourthterm government which took half a year to cobble together after inconclusive September 2017 elections.
All major parties were due to discuss lessons learnt ahead of another poll in Hesse state, home to financial hub Frankfurt, in two weeks. The repercussions are crucial for Merkel who, in power for 13 years, runs again as party chief of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in December.
The Sueddeutsche said that, following what it labelled a new milestone in the decline of German mainstream parties, the coalition now has a stark choice: a return to ‘common sense, or new elections’.
The Bavaria poll result shattered old certainties for the CSU, which has ruled almost single-handedly since the 1960s in the state known for its fairytale castles, Oktoberfest and crucifixes on classroom walls. — AFP