Well might one ask, wozu Deutschland?
A real shudder has gone through the body politic in Germany with the shock resignation of Franz Muntefering as head of the Social Democratc Party. Muntefering, a lynch pin in the new Grand Coalition and slated to become vice chancellor and labor minister also said he is leaving his participation in Merkel’s cabinet open.
The proximate cause of this development is the sound defeat of his candidate for the position of party general secretary by Andrea Nahles, leading leftie and erstwhile protege of the Left Party’s leader Oskar Lafontaine.
Now it seems that Edmund Stoiber, head of the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s CDU, will be staying in Munich.
Merkel could be forgiven for thinking that the Grand Coalition is a delicate balancing act. Certainly the pundits are in a state of excitement. Yet Merkel is plowing on regardless and outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroder is calling for calm. I believe that when Merkel was asked if she was excited after it became clear that she would be the next Chancellor she said “I’m feeling fine” followed by “There’s work to be done.”
Her Prussian sense of duty and stoicism may be the qualities that see her through.
What it all means is more than I can say but it is a fair bet that some on the left of the SPD think the lurch towards the neoliberal model of market economics in recent years has gone far enough.
thanks Brian,
I noted that the Economist noted two editions back that the coalition looked somewhat unstable.
Germany needs a new election and new Government.
I did say and now will say again I tend to agree with what the economist said two weeks ago.
The coalition is unstable.
Germany needs another election and another government cpable of delivering much needed reform that Schroeder started but didn’t go on with.
this is the third time I have attempted to comment on this thread and I haven’t even mentioned the war!
more economic reform needed. More likely from the SDP meen than thosr of the CDP or CSU but Germany needs a new election and new Government!
Stop the press Stoiber has resigned!!
Big problems ahead for Angela!
Homer, it’s a bit dificult to form an opinion from so far away and I don’t know enough about their procedures, but this report from Deutsche Welle seems to indicate that they are sorting it all out OK.
To summarise, Brandenburg Premier Matthias Platzeck (from the east) will head up the SPD while Muntefering will stay as vice-chancellor and labor minister in the next cabinet. Stoiber might not be much loss. It seems he and Merkel were always going to strike sparks off each other.
Meanwhile Andrea Nahles, who caused the problem, has spoken on radio of withdrawing her candidacy. It seems she was only put up as the choice of a 45-member leadership group but the actual vote is at the party congress in two weeks. There’s talk of Platzeck putting up a different candidate.
This is what they say about Platzeck:
Better to get all these things sorted before they start. To me the real question is whether Merkel can hold it all together. I gather there are a few in her party who are more than willing to take over if she falters.
Stoiber is a big problem and will make trouble until he is chancellor.
He would have been hopeless at economics.
Brian – the Fin reported today that speculation among political scientists and commentators is that a government may not now be formed. But another election can’t be held til March. Stoiber is said to have refused to work with the SPD, if it’s pulled towards the left, and to be positioning himself to displace Merkel if the Coalition doesn’t come together or is weak and unstable.
Mark, I agree with Homer about Stoiber from what I’ve read. Stoiber was always trouble and it was said that he’d get too close to Muntefering in order to undermine Merkel. Also he was attempting to annexe parts of other cabinet ministers’ portfolios within the CDU fold. Good riddance, I’m inclined to think.
I saw the Fin Review report. I’m sure Geoff Kitney missed the essential point that Muntefering never at any stage said for sure that he was giving up his place in the cabinet. He said he’d think about it. I think Kitney may have misread this from the start. Last night the dispatches were that Muntefering would stay in cabinet as deputy chancellor. It’s just the organisational position he’s given up.
He said he would have been looking for renewal in the party, including greater involvement of youth. He said it was coming a bit sooner than he expected. He seemed pretty cool about it all.
At the moment it looks like a shot across the bows from the left, and there was a comment about a nonconsultative style.
I’m thinking that if everyone keeps their head now everything will have been for the best.
The latest on this one is that Stoiber seems to have shot himself in the foot. He’ll probably survive in Bavaria, but it seems his home support base was none too happy and his national career is probably over.
Meanwhile the main preoccupation on the part of Merkel and her aspiring coalitionists is where to find 40 billion euros in budget savings.