Germany Wins, Merkel Loses

[Peter1469]

Germany Wins, Merkel Loses

Coalition talks fail. Spiegel Online reacts. And interesting read for the German point of view.

By walking away from the talks, the FDP made a contribution to political clarity in Germany - even if that wasn't the party's intention. Those who vote for the Greens aren't generally hoping for a coalition with the FDP, while supporters of the CSU tend to have nothing but disdain for the Greens. And, it must be said, that is how things are supposed to be.

Rivalry between the parties is the lifeblood of our democracy and their first duty is not that of ensuring the well-being of the state but of reflecting the diversity of German society. It is something that the Social Democrats should remind voters now that the hail of appeals has begun beating down on the party to reconsider, for the good of the country, its decision to shun a continuation of their coalition with Merkel's conservatives. Plus, the initial interpretation of the September 24 election results, that the electorate is eager to be rid of Merkel's conservative-SPD coalition, remains the correct one.

[Peter1469]

Update- the center-left party is willing to talk with Merkel.

The impasse that has gripped German politics all week showed signs of breaking Friday as a main center-left party backed down from pledges that it would not consider teaming with Chancellor Angela Merkel to form a government.


The shift gives Merkel a potential path out of a crisis that has been called the worst of her 12-year tenure. It also lessens the chance that Germans will go back to the polls in early 2018 after an inconclusive September election left the country without an obvious formula for a stable government.


Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) remains the dominant party, but it still needs to work with other parties to cobble together a governing partnership.


Since the September vote, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) have insisted they will go into opposition rather than form another “grand coalition” with the CDU.


That pledge was repeated as recently as Monday after talks broke down among the CDU, the pro-business Free Democrats and the environmentalist Greens. This left Merkel without negotiating partners as she seeks to extend her leadership of Germany to a fourth term.

[Peter1469]

Trouble for Angela Merkel — and the global elite

It’s been a tough era for Davos Man, the personification of the great and the good who meet in the World Economic Forum in that Swiss ski resort every January. The rebukes just keep coming. The European debt crisis. Brexit. Donald Trump. And now, and once again unexpectedly, Angela Merkel’s failure to form a German government.


For a dozen years, European elites who have recoiled from George W. Bush and swooned over Barack Obama have regarded Merkel as a rock-solid firmament of good sense. Her considerable internal political skills, her seeming unflappability and her upholding of conventional wisdoms, both well- and ill-founded, have made her a favorite at Davos


Merkel has been the pillar of the European Union and seems to have been the dominant force behind the multiple responses to each of a succession of euro crises. It helps, of course, that Germany has Europe’s largest economy, one mostly unscathed by the 2008 financial crisis — though that owes much to the Thatcherish labor law reforms of Merkel’s predecessor, the Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder.

By standard political science rules of thumb, Merkel and her Christian Democrats should have been a big winner in the Sept. 24 elections. The national unemployment rate is 3.7 percent. Inflation, the bugaboo of Germans since the 1920s, is low. The Social Democrats’ leader is untested in national politics.


Yet the CDU and its Bavarian partner, the CSU, got only 33 percent of the vote — their lowest percentage since West Germany started voting in 1949. The SPD, arguably the world’s oldest social democratic party, plummeted to 21 percent. The two major parties thus barely topped 50 percent, compared with 76 to 77 percent from 1992 to 2002 and the high 60s from 2005 to 2013.

Read the article at the link.

[Peter1469]

And another article about Merkel's failure.

The long-time prime minister’s failure to form a governing coalition is indicative of a growing, continent-wide distaste for her policies.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...backlash-grows

Read the article at the link.

[Green Arrow]

Update- the center-left party is willing to talk with Merkel.

I said before that the SPD would end up joining Merkel’s coalition. They know they don’t benefit from new elections and they don’t want to be outside the government. Their initial refusal to join her was a power play. Now she has to give them more concessions than she would have before in order to keep her job. The SPD has all the leverage, where they wouldn’t have before the Jamaica Coalition talks.

[Peter1469]

I said before that the SPD would end up joining Merkel’s coalition. They know they don’t benefit from new elections and they don’t want to be outside the government. Their initial refusal to join her was a power play. Now she has to give them more concessions than she would have before in order to keep her job. The SPD has all the leverage, where they wouldn’t have before the Jamaica Coalition talks.

We shall see if it works.

[Green Arrow]

We shall see if it works.

Anything can happen.

[Peter1469]

Anything can happen.

I doubt that.

This is Merkel's last chance of forming a government. If it fails, and it likely will, Germany is going back to the polls.

[Green Arrow]

I doubt that.

This is Merkel's last chance of forming a government. If it fails, and it likely will, Germany is going back to the polls.

That at least is certain.

[Peter1469]

With Germany in crisis, Europe-watchers contemplate an E.U. after Merkel

Germany has for decades been Europe's pillar of stability, supporting the European Union through economic crises, pressures from immigration and the threat of a resurgent far-right.

But with Germany's politics now in disarray — and the future of its chancellor Angela Merkel hanging in the balance — Europe risks losing its de facto leader, resulting in a power vacuum across the continent.


Europe-watchers are contemplating what protracted uncertainty in the country might mean for the E.U. and how it might fare if Merkel does not survive.