Merkel’s centrist strategy angers conservatives

Drift left could backfire: analysts

BERLIN, Feb 26, (RTRS): Germany’s Christian Democrats used to joke that even a drunken supporter woken from a deep slumber could leap to attention and rattle off the party’s policy positions.

But Chancellor Angela Merkel has pushed her centre-right party so far from its bedrock conservative roots in the run-up to September’s election that even sober CDU voters are having a hard time remembering what their party stands for these days.

The CDU’s apparent U-turn this week on rights for gay couples is just the latest example of conservative doctrine being jettisoned in the name of political advantage.

Yet analysts warn the drift left could backfire on Merkel, who is in a tight battle to win a third term in a Sept 22 election, if she ventures so far to the centre that it alienates core voters on the right.

She has already persuaded her party to sacrifice long-standing conservative tenets such as conscription, nuclear power and university tuition fees. allowed visa-free travel in Europe.

Turkey has complained bitterly over Berlin’s lack of support for its EU hopes, and has accused the EU of double standards in conducting negotiations without full membership in mind.

Formal EU accession negotiations with Turkey began in October 2005, just weeks after Conservative Merkel beat Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in a federal election. Schroeder, who enjoyed close ties with Erdogan which he still maintains, had supported Turkey’s entry.

She now wants the CDU to introduce a minimum wage and over the weekend one of her closest allies signalled the party may also be ready to abandon its opposition giving gay couples the same preferential tax treatment as married heterosexuals.

“The CDU isn’t what it used to be,” said Gerd Langguth, a political scientist at Bonn University. “It’s sacrificing more and more of its conservative core values. That may turn off some of conservative voters but could help Merkel win the election.”

The left-leaning weekly Die Zeit noted wryly that the old adage about conservatives knowing party positions by heart because they rarely changed might not fit anymore.

“Before any CDU politician woken at 4 a.m. would know what the party stood for,” Die Zeit wrote. But not anymore. “The CDU is angering conservatives by abandoning its old doctrines.”

Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the

As Germany, along with the EU, had already agreed to open negotiations, Merkel had to continue this position, although as Christian Democrat leader she personally opposed it and has always instead advocated a watered-down link with Ankara.

“We want a process with an open outcome. My position is known — I am sceptical towards full membership. But I fully support that the negotiations take place openly,” Merkel said.

“We still have a long path ahead of us.” Christian Social Union (CSU), are leading the centre-left opposition Social Democrats (SPD) by a comfortable double-digit margin in most polls. But the CDU/CSU’s coalition partners, the Free Democrats (FDP) have slumped below 5 percent in polls and may not even win enough votes to stay in parliament, let alone preserve the centre-right coalition.

That could open the path for the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens to form a ruling coalition even if they both end up behind the CDU/CSU on election day. A more likely scenario is a right-left “grand coalition” between Merkel’s conservatives and the SPD.

Many of the positions the CDU has taken are issues that the SPD and Greens have held and analysts say they are designed to rob the centre-left of important campaign issues.

Analysts also note the centre-left now controls the upper house, the Bundesrat, and Merkel is pragmatically switching direction voluntarily before being forced into changing.

Turkey has completed only one of 35 policy “chapters” every accession candidate must conclude. All but 13 are blocked by France, Cyprus and the European Commission, which says Ankara does not meet standards on human rights and freedom of speech.

Socialist French President Francois Hollande said this month he was ready to unblock talks on the “chapter” or policy area dealing with help for EU regions. His conservative predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, strongly opposed Turkey’s EU aspirations.