Leading Off
• Germany – parliament (Sept. 24); Lower Saxony – state parliament (Oct. 15)
For an election where a long-term leader was widely expected to win re-election and did so comfortably, Germany's recent vote nevertheless brought significant changes to the country's politics. Angela Merkel assured herself of a fourth term, but much else beyond that remains cloudy. While Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will lead the country, it lost significant vote share, dropping from 42 percent in 2013 to 33 percent in 2017. At the same time, its frequent coalition partner, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), also lost ground, falling from 26 percent of the vote to 21.
Believing that serving as a junior ally with its chief rival has hurt its standing, the SPD terminated its relationship with the CDU following the election and will instead head up the opposition. That leaves the CDU conducting complex coalition negotiations with both the center-left Greens and the center-right Free Democratic Party (FDP), two parties that don't like each other due to their opposing views on business and environmental regulations. Merkel needs the support of both to form a majority, a so-called "Jamaica coalition" because the three parties' traditional colors (black, green, and yellow) mirror those on the Jamaican flag.
While Merkel tries to balance these two opposing interests, all eyes are on the far-right anti-immigrant Islamophobic Alternative for Germany (AfD), which entered parliament for the first time with 13 percent of the vote—and did so as the third-largest party, behind the CDU and SPD. Right-wing nationalism has been taboo in Germany since the end of World War II for obvious reasons, but the same forces at work across Europe and the Western world have found success there as well: Resistance to immigration, opposition to modern social mores, and a preference for nationalism over multilateralism have found strong support among older, less-educated white voters almost everywhere.
Fortunately, AfD itself has not handled the heightened scrutiny the comes with its new prominence very well. The leader of a less extreme faction quit the party days after the election, intending to sit as an independent member of parliament (MP). She may try to peel off additional MPs as well who share her views, though Merkel has ruled out working with any part of AfD, splitters or otherwise. And of course, like other white nationalist parties, AfD is filled with disturbing characters in positions of power, including one who called mixed-race people "unbearable" and another one standing trial for allegedly inflicting "grievous bodily harm" and attempted robbery on a group of soccer fans.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2yimead
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment