Major Hit in Regional Elections
Angela Merkel is stepping down as Chancellor. In the process, she created a mess as her CDU Party Takes a Major Hit in Regional Elections.
Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) took a hit Sunday evening, with results showing that recent scandals and the mishandling of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout potentially damaged the party in two vital state elections.
The night brought the expected victory for Winfried Kretschmann, the Green state premier in Baden-Württemberg, who now faces a choice: Continuing his coalition with the CDU, or pursuing a fresh option: A potential “traffic light” coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Social Democrats, led by the similarly popular State Premier Malu Dreyer, looked set to triumph, scoring a projected 36.1%, potentially opening the path to another traffic light coalition with the Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP).
DW’s chief political editor, Michaela Küfner, said the results in Rhineland Palatinate showed the increased “fragmentation” of German politics, while also reflecting the anger among some voters over what she called “the poor performance of the central government when it comes to securing enough vaccines.”
[Merkel was hit by] a corruption scandal that had caused three conservative parliamentarians to step down, and the mishandling of vaccine distribution, which has seen Germany only vaccinate 7.5% of its population to date, well behind many developed nations.
What Happened?
The following snips courtesy of Eurointelligence on March 4 fully explains the election debacle this past weekend.
Oops, Germany Forgot to Buy the Self-Tests
Angela Merkel has had a lot of fans in the German and international media. This is changing, at least in Germany itself. Long-standing readers will know that we have been criticising her for a tendency to paper over cracks – during the eurozone crisis for example. The kicking-the-can-down-the-road mindset has revealed itself to many more people during this pandemic. Merkel was personally behind the decision to shift vaccination procurement to the European Commission, without even considering whether the Commission had the capability to do this effectively. When that failed, the German government declared self-tests to be the royal road out of lockdown. That sounded like a good idea, even to us. As it turned out, the German government has not even bought them yet, because they are still haggling over the price. The lockdown persists because the government failed to order the tests.
As FAZ put it this morning: Germany is trapped in small print. The lockdown will remain. The Merkel-friendly German media can’t sugar-coat this any longer.
“Traffic Light Coalition”?
German national elections are on Sunday, September 26.
If CDU is part of any coalition it will be as the junior member with the Greens. That would be a “Green-Black” coalition based on party colors.
Also ponder a “Traffic Light Coalition” (Green, Yellow, Red) with the Greens (Green), SDP (Red), and FDP (Yellow).
Regardless, at long last Merkel will be gone, leaving at the bottom and making a total mess of things ever since her “We Can Do This” speech which unleased a flood of immigration woes.
I wrote about “Peak Merkel” in regards to the immigration crisis way back on October 18, 2015.
CDU was in a “Grand Coalition” with SPD and still is even though the coalition does not have close to the 50% needed to form one if new elections were held.
Even though a majority of SPD party members were ready to pull the plug on the coalition, the party leaders weren’t.
Numerous times the coalition nearly collapsed, but SPD leaders did not want to give up on limos and other perks that coalition partners get.
So a coalition marriage made in hell went on and on and on. It will finally end on September 26 with Merkel leaving the party in its worst shape in decades.
Mish
Germany is at a crossroads now. They are getting very close to China, ignoring human rights abuses like the Uighur persecution in order to open up more markets in China for their autos. They are getting very close to Russia with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will make them fully dependent on Putin for their energy needs. Meanwhile, they and France are propping up the EU, which is on the verge of splintering apart. The vaccine debacle resulted in part from Europe (primarily France and Germany) wanting to support European vaccine makers rather than American companies, leaving them without sufficient medicine to vaccinate their population.
Markel is at the heart of all of these things, she has left Germany in a perilous position.
There are enough vaccines in Europe, if we include Sputnik V, that will be produced in France and Italy.
One can compare the ability of various western governments to solve the Covid crisis. We will find that some are sometimes a little better, or a little worse.
But the true pertinent comparison is between Europe and north America on one side and Asia on the other side. We see then the complete failure of western countries. I think that this will have consequences in the reputation of western countries, that will not remain the most credible in terms of science and organization.
No shit! Even most of Africa did better than the western countries. Countries south of the US border, not so well. The Aussies and New Zealand? They did kick ass
This is true for Africa. Some specialists of epidemics say that it is because, being poor, they go on using old medicines that are ignored here, and not recommended by big pharma companies that want to sell their inefficient new drugs (for example Europe did buy several hundred million $ of remdesivir).
I don’t know how they can have four or more relevant parties. More parties split the vote. I think that’s why we basically have two major parties.
“I think that’s why we basically have two major parties.”
One Party- The War Party Of The Rich. FIFY
They can have four or more relevant parties because they have proportional voting, unlike the U.S., where it is winner take all. If you and people like you get 5% of the vote in Germany, then you have representation in Parliament.
CDU has abandoned both Christian and conservative ideology, there’s nothing traditional about them. They have embraced easy money, cultual marxism like gay marriage and mass third world migration. But give it enough time someone will make Germany great again 🇩🇪
Merkel has done a good job. Nobody is perfect. She’s shown far better leadership than Trump. She dropped the ball on vaccinations and Germany is no longer the shining example
“Merkeln” is a new German verb meaning “do nothing”. Is that your definition of doing well?
She’s coasted on her predecessor Gerard Schroeder’s labor market reforms. The only “accomplishments” she has are the unrestricted “asylum” immigration, and a failed vaccine program.
Germany allowed the EU to secure covid-19 vaccines on its behalf. It didn’t work out. Germany may have been a shining star in how to navigate the covid-19 pandemic initially but the country is tired of restrictions and now behind Israel , The U.K , the United States and possibly Spain as well in vaccine rates
Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Merkel has been doing an impossible job for a long time, and it has used her up, it looks like.
CDU and SFD are the parties of the past, and now we see the ascendancy of the more extreme left and right parties…..the Social Democrats and Lefts and the Greens on one hand, and FDP and AfD on the right and the NDP on the far right.
I know probably I left some out. Germans have lots of parties. That much I like. I wish we had more parties.
But I worry more about the far right for Germany, just like I worry more about the far right here.
But the left is not some great alternative…..also just like here.
Both sides pretty much suck, as far as I can tell. But I know far less about Europe than most Europeans do about the US, and I’m sure one of you will let me know how wrong I am.
Left and Green and SPD sound great until you look a the details…..the devil is always in the details.
When countries lose their center, then bad things can happen…I am sort of sorry to see Merkel go.
With the SPD and Greens as the main beneficiaries of CDU decline it’s unlikely much will change regarding German policy. Heck, the SPD is in the ruling coalition already.