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| Europe |
| German reckoning |
| 2017-09-28 |
| [DAWN] FOR the first time in many a decade, the far right will have a vocal presence in Germany’s parliament, after Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) exceeded expectations in last Sunday’s elections by winning almost 13 per cent of the popular vote, which entitles it to 88 seats in the Bundestag. The centrist parties ‐ Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom... ’s Christian Democrats (CDU) alongside their Bavarian sister party, the somewhat more conservative CSU, as well as the Social Democrats (SPD) ‐ mustered their lowest shares of the vote since the 1940s. Jointly, their parliamentary representation is more than enough to carry on governing the country as a ’grand coalition’, but the SPD has opted out of maintaining the trend. Its primary motivation may be self-centred, insofar as it hopes greater ’product differentiation’ could improve the party’s chances of reviving its fortunes, but the move will have the decidedly positive side-effect of denying the AfD the right to claim the mantle of the largest opposition party. It poses a challenge, though, for Angela Merkel, whose status as chancellor remains unchallenged, but who is now obliged to forge a new coalition. With 33pc of the vote, the CDU/CSU alliance will need to co-opt two of the smaller parties in order to obtain a working majority. The only feasible option in this respect is a ’Jamaican coalition’, wedding the CDU/CSU’s black insignia to the yellow of the classically liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), which returns to the Bundestag after dropping below the 5pc threshold in 2013, and the natural colour of the Greens. |
| Posted by:Fred |