German coalition puts Merkel’s legacy at stake
Angela Merkel is all set to serve another full term as German chancellor after entering into a deal with Social Democrats (SPD) during coalition negotiations. Details of the German grand coalition were covered by newspapers around the world this week. T he Washington Post highlighted the weaknesses of Merkel’s incoming government and what her legacy is going to be. “Germany’s two big parties have finally agreed on a new government under Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is both good news and grounds for worry. The announcement comes as a relief for many Germans weary of months of political uncertainty. It is welcome, too, for a European Union hoping for more robust support from Berlin. But it offers more reason for concern about the future of western liberal democracy: That the German centre-left and centre-right were forced to renew a coalition that has weakened both of them underlines the growing strength of the political extremes and raises the spectre that in Germany, as in other western nations, the centre ultimately may not hold ... If the new coalition falters, the AfD could be the leading beneficiary. In neighbouring Austria, years of right-left coalitions finally led last year to the election of a new government including the far right. Merkel’s most important task will be to avoid leaving such a legacy.”
Drawing a connection between the coalition talks in Germany and Brexit, the Guardian noted, “Since Brexit is the biggest problem facing the UK, it is easy from this side of the Channel to imagine it is also the greatest challenge facing the European Union. It is not. EU leaders have yet to find lasting fixes to structural weaknesses in the single currency. Continental politics is plagued by xenophobic nationalism, which is intimately connected to the absence of consensus on how to deal with mass migration from beyond Europe. At the wider European level, the formation of a German administration should, in theory, unlock single currency and wider EU reforms. But there are competing accounts of what that requires in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. Schulz also has a greater appetite for integration than Merkel.”
Bloomberg carried a sharp op-ed underlining the complexities of government formation and CDU’s future in Germany. “Last time Merkel worked with an SPD finance minister — Peer Steinbrueck between 2005 and 2009 — the SPD lost votes in the next election. Today, though, it doesn’t have anywhere to go but up. It has fallen well below 20 per cent in recent polls. This requires its ministers, and in particular [Olaf] Scholz, to keep as high a profile as possible, be as independent as they can, and prevent Merkel’s party from claiming credit for SPD’s successes. This puts the conservatives at a disadvantage: Merkel’s unlikely to run in 2021, and none of her allies has as prominent a role as Scholz in the new coalition government. It’s not clear from the likely portfolio distribution whom Merkel will be grooming as her successor — and that’s a problem for the CDU/CSU bloc. It’s almost as if Merkel wants the SPD to win after she’s no longer in the driving seat.”
Pointing out the disillusionment in both political camps in Germany, The Hindu cautioned in its editorial, “The decision of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to form a new coalition government is no surprise. The latest arrangement is a result of political pragmatism and a willingness to accord primacy to the national interest, despite ideological differences.”