Germany yesterday braced for a period of political unpredictability after the Social Democratic Party (SPD) narrowly won a general election, but faced a rival claim to power from outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative camp.
For a nation synonymous with stability after 16 years of Merkel’s leadership, the coming weeks and months promise to be a rocky ride as both German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz’s SPD and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Armin Laschet scramble for coalition partners.
The power struggle risks putting Germany out of play on the international scene for some time, even though November’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, will be demanding action from the world’s biggest powers.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Europe’s largest economy will also hold the presidency of the G7 next year and needs a government capable of setting the international agenda.
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Clement Beaune in Paris said that France “has an interest to have a strong German government in place,” urging “swift” action from German political parties.
However, European markets heaved a sigh of relief, climbing after the tight results, predicting that a government led by either the SPD or the CDU would bring continuity in economic policy.
Preliminary official results showed that the center-left SPD narrowly won the vote with 25.7 percent, while Merkel’s center-right CDU-Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) bloc sunk to a historic low of 24.1 percent. Alliance 90/The Greens placed third at 14.8 percent, its best result yet, but still short of expectations.
Scholz, 63, said the conservatives belonged in the opposition.
“The CDU and CSU have not only significantly lost votes, they have essentially received the message from citizens that they should no longer be in government, but should go into the opposition,” he said.
Shrugging off the uncertainties ahead in the quest for a governing majority, Scholz said Germany would not be thrown off by the power struggle that lies ahead.
“You should know that Germany always has coalitions and it was always stable,” he said, adding that he aimed to pull together his coalition by Christmas.
The Sueddeutsche newspaper said the vote revealed that “Germans longed for change, but lost their nerve a bit.”
In the fractured political landscape of the post-Merkel era, the most likely outcome would be a three-way alliance — ending the post-World War II tradition of two-party coalition governments.
Both Scholz and Laschet would be looking to Alliance 90/The Greens and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP, 11.5 percent) to cobble together a parliamentary majority.
However, the two kingmakers are not natural bedfellows, diverging on issues such as tax increases and public investment in climate protection.
Alliance 90/The Greens chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock — whose party hoped to do better with the climate crisis a top voter concern this year — remained vague about her preferred tie-up, but said it was time for “a fresh start” in the nation of 83 million people.
FDP leader Christian Lindner suggested speeding up the process by sitting down with Alliance 90/The Greens first before talking with the two bigger parties.
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