Merkel protege issues stark warning to SPD before state election
GERMANY - Chancellor Angela Merkel’s preferred successor as head of Germany’s conservatives warned the Social Democrats (SPD) yesterday that pulling out of the ruling coalition after a weekend regional vote would trigger a federal election.
With the conservatives and SPD facing a second local election drubbing in two weeks, Sunday’s vote in the western state of Hesse could help decide how Merkel choreographs the end of her 13year stewardship of Europe’s biggest economy.
SPD members are piling pressure on their own leaders to abandon the ‘grand coalition’ they reluctantly joined in March and reinvent themselves.
In unusually blunt language at a campaign event in the city of Frankfurt, the general-secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), spelt out what this could mean.
“If this government were to break apart now, it would lead to new elections,” said Annegret KrampKarrenbauer, who Merkel promoted to the senior party post in February in a clear signal that she is the chancellor’s choice to succeed her. Opinion polls suggest a snap election would probably hurt the conservatives and SPD most. Merkel has been weakened by her 2015 decision to let more than a million migrants into Germany and — while polls show her conservatives are still the biggest party — their support has fallen to 2627 percent, meaning a coalition with the SPD might no longer have sufficient support.
The environmentalist Greens, on 16-20 percent have overtaken the SPD in most surveys, and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) remain strong with 15-17 percent.
After coming second in an election in the southern state of Bavaria on Oct. 14, the Greens are also set to be kingmakers in Hesse but big losses for the conservatives could spell the end of the conservative-Greens alliance in the state.
Infighting within Merkel’s federal coalition, which also includes Bavaria’s CSU, has hit the popularity of all three partners since they took office in March. The government came to the brink of collapse in July due to a row over migrant policy. Kramp-Karrenbauer said the ruling parties must get together after the Hesse election and decide on the government’s policy priorities. “I believe that would be an important signal to people,” she said. (Reuters)