Germans Re-Elect Merkel without SDP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel got herself re-elected Sunday in a resounding rejection of her partner in the grand coalition, the Social Democrats. Now, her Christian Democrats are forming an alliance with the free-market, free-thinking Free Democrats, and she will be able to run Germany her way, that is, from the right of the center. Despite rightist policies of the last several years getting the world into the financial mess it is in, the Germans have decided to not to move left to straighten things out.

Of course, being a conservative in Germany isn't quite the same thing as being a conservative in, say, Orange County, California, let alone Mississippi. She will retain Germany's internationalist foreign policy by focusing on the European Union. Germany's health care and social welfare systems are not going to be dismantled, but minor changes posing as reforms are possible. And she may cut taxes to keep Germany's recovery going, but at the very first sign of inflation, the brakes will be applied.

The Free Democrats, traditionally the junior partner in most ruling coalitions since 1949, have virtually rolled over for Ms. Merkel. Their leader, with the very European name of Guido Westerwelle, told the press, "We'll negotiate on everything because of course we want this to be a really good government." Apparently, everything is up in the air, and Ms. Merkel will get virtually everything she wants if it means the FDP gets a few portfolios in the cabinet.

Foreign policy will see the biggest change in that a restructuring of the German foreign policy apparatus is likely. First off, conscription may end even though the Christian Democrats believe national service serves a useful unifying purpose. The reasons are largely questions of economic efficiency. A smaller, professional Bundeswehr simply makes more sense given Germany's light security needs. In addition, she may introduce a kind of national security council to bring disparate sections of the foreign affairs apparatus under her control at the expense of the foreign ministry. The SDP, as her former coalition partner, had enough power to sometimes do things their own way when their leader was foreign minister. The FDP doesn't. Finally, Germany may ask the US to remove its nuclear weapons as the Cold War has been over quite a while.

Domestically, the main issue is going to be the tension between energy needs and environmentalism. Germany has a healthy green movement, both in the social and political senses of the term. Yet, the ruling coalition is not going to care as much about that as Germany's energy issues. Back in 2000, Germany decided to get out of the nuclear energy business by 2021. Both Ms. Merkel and Mr. Westerwelle have backed a move to reconsider that decision.

Despite her re-election, Ms. Merkel is going to lead Germany in a very different direction.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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