The Turmoil in German Politics

The Turmoil in German Politics

Figure 1: EU (left) and German (right) Flags

Germany one of the most important states in the history of mankind by many aspects either we talk about history, geography, science, technology, politics, or economics Germany leaves its mark every time. Germany is one of the few countries of the west that faced extremely harsh conditions but still is a power house in the world, despite of defeats in both world wars, a long period of occupation by the allied forces, a long period of division in the country and its harsh journey towards reunification in 1990, Germany has always come back with even more stronger stance.

After its reunification in 1990 Germany started to rebuild everything and after 26 years Germany is a global power house and a role model for the world, showing the world how to regain one’s fame and repute, how to rebuild an empire from a few pieces of scrap. Germany not only regained its own pride but also lead the foundation of the European Union (EU), The Euro zone and many other important organisations, and has been called by many as the de-facto leader of Europe for decades. All this credit goes to Germany’s strong and stable political and diplomatic system which it attained under the leadership of Angela Merkel who has been the leader of CDU Germany’s ruling party since 2000 and country’s Leader since 2005. Under Chancellor Merkel’s leadership Germany became Europe’s biggest Economy, one of the leading exporters in the world, a major economic and technological hub, home to one of the biggest stock markets in the world (The Frankfurt Stock Exchange), a major military power and a major regional and global power.

Figure 2: Angela Merkel German Chancellor since 2005

But after enjoying a long period of political and diplomatic prosperity Germany and Chancellor Merkel are facing a tough time for a couple years with serious issues like migrant crisis, euro-zone crisis, increased burden on Germany’s shoulders after the Brexit, security breach and terror attacks in the country, all exerting an enormous pressure on Merkel administration and resulting in to people losing faith on chancellor Merkel’s leadership. This continuous tension has resulted in to Germany running without an official government, and as of today it’s been six days since Germany entered in to a new year without a government.

Entrance of AFD and FDP:

Alternate for Deutschland (AFD) is a new political party in Germany formed in 2013 having a right-wing ideology the party did not received much of support in 2013 German elections as its ideology was criticized by most of the Germans for being racist, islamophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant and its ideology was seen to be much like the Neo-Nazism movements of the past. But 2017 elections were completely different, Germany was facing a migrant crisis with most of the people coming from state of Syria, Iraq and some other countries turned in to a war zone by some western powers, which mounted an extra pressure on the German economic system. There were some serious acts of terrorism in Germany which is highly uncommon and was seen that some of the migrants might be involved in it, people who disguised themselves as migrants but their real mission was to reach Germany and conduct some acts of terrorism. But in the light of all these events Chancellor Merkel still continued her support for the immigrants which was criticized by many people in Germany, and that was the time when AFD came in front once again leading various debates and rallies to promote their ideology and strengthening their position for the 2017 elections and it paid off as the AFD left its mark on 2017 German elections. 

Another party The Free Democratic Party (FDP) made a huge come back in 2017 elections and surprised many as the party completely failed to secure a single seat in 2013 elections, many thought it to be the end of the FDP but the FDP stunned them all with its remarkable comeback in 2017 elections.

Figure 3: AFD Leader Alice Weidel (top) FDP Leader Christian Lindner (bottom)

2017 German Elections:

The German Federal elections were held on 24^th September 2017 to elect country’s new Bundestag (Lower House) which in turn would elect in country’s new chancellor. Many predicted Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) party to have a comfortable victory while some predicting the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Germany’s 2^nd biggest political party to give the CDU/CSU a tough time. But no one was expecting anything extraordinary from the AFD or the FDP. But after the elections every was completely amazed as the AFD and FDP made a splendid entrance in to the German Politics as they won 94 and 80 seats respectively and emerging as 3^rd and 4^th biggest parties in Germany after elections and a huge downfall was seen in the popularity of the CDU/CSU and SPD’s popularity.

The overall result of the election was seen as 6 parties securing the most in the elections as follow:

Party Name	CDU/CSU	SPD	AFD	FDP	Left	Alliance90/ The Green
Seats Before Elections	311	193	0	0	64	63
Seats After Elections	246	153	94	80	69	67
Popular Vote Before Elections	41.5%	25.7%	4.7%	4.8%	8.6%	8.4%
Popular Vote after Elections	32.9%	20.5%	7.9%	10.7%	9.2%	8.9%

Post-Election Situation:

Although the CDU/CSU party still emerged as the most popular party in the country but it failed to secure a leading majority to form a government so it started talks with other parties to form a government coalition. The SPD party already announced that they will not form a coalition with the CDU/CSU and the CDU/CSU announced no possibility of coalition formation with AFD or the Left. So they turned their attention towards Free Democrats (FDP) and The Greens to form a government coalition which is represented by a term known as the Jamaica coalition (Black-Yellow-Green) with Black representing CDU/CSU, Yellow representing FDP and Green representing Alliance 90/The Greens . The coalition talks failed on 20^th November 2017 as three parties failed to reach an agreement on the migration and climate issues.

Figure 4: SPD Leader Martin Schulz

Following the failure in coalition talks German President requested the SPD to change their point of view and form a grand coalition with the CDU/CSU and ultimately end the uncertainty in German politics. On December 6, 2017 SPD leader Martin Schulz in response to the President’s request held a party congress where majority of the 600 delegates approved to start coalition talks with the CDU/CSU party. This decision was met with opposition from the party youth wing, all these delays are resulting in to an increased uncertainty in German politics, Chancellor Merkel stated to have new elections in the country instead of forming a minority government. Many of leading political figures including French President Emmanuel Macron said to restructure their policies after the German elections. Germany isn’t the only country ever to go on without a government but this uncertainty is exerting a serious pressure on Germany and compromising its status at global level.