Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [1]
When the 2005 election failed to produce a clear winner, a grand coalition of the SPD and CDU/CSU was formed under the leadership of Angela Merkel, Germany’s first woman chancellor. Germans, who at the time were overwhelmingly in favour of a grand coalition, hoped that the two largest parties would bury their hatchets and work together to tackle the country’s most pressing problems: long-term unemployment, health and pension systems sorely in need of financial reform, migration and citizenship issues, as well as such hot potatoes as a tax system many believe is skewed to benefit the better-off, a hefty national debt, declining real income and a perceived lack of economic incentives for individuals and small business. As it turned out, successes were modest since compromises outnumbered gutsy reforms. As one minister put it, the grand coalition was something between a forced and an arranged marriage.
Then came the financial crisis of 2008–09, which drove up the public debt as massive amounts of money were pumped into ailing German banks. One of the more populist government responses to the crisis was the so-called Abwrackprämie (literally ‘scrap premium’, akin to the US ‘cash for clunkers’ scheme). Car owners willing to scrap their vehicle if older than nine years received €2500 towards the purchase of a brand-new one. Almost two million Germans took advantage of this scheme, which was intended to boost business for domestic car manufacturers and dealers and push polluters off the road. On the whole, the short-term result was positive, but many economists doubt the program’s long-term usefulness.
The 2009 elections showed people’s disillusionment with the grand coalition by putting a centre-right alliance of CDU/CSU and FDP into power. While the former dropped a couple of percentage points to 33.8%, support for the pro-business FDP grew by a third to 14.6%, thereby increasing its political strength within the coalition. It was a personal victory for the socially liberal but free-market-fixated FDP, which is led by Guido Westerwelle, one of Germany’s few openly gay politicians. The junior party’s new self-confidence makes it more difficult for Merkel – who’s often criticised for her low-profile political style – to set the political agenda. One of the more controversial goals of the FDP is to weaken the laws that protect workers from dismissal. The party is also in favour of lowering taxes, despite the enormous national debt. CDU/CSU party leaders hope that Merkel will show some teeth and adopt a clearer political stance, even if that means losing her title as ‘mother of the nation’.
The SPD, meanwhile, suffered its worst election outcome since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 and will be part of the opposition for the first time since 1998. Unable to define itself to voters on the left, it garnered a paltry 23%, haemorrhaging votes to both Alliance 90/The Greens and the Left.
One of the most divisive topics during the election was nuclear energy and waste. In the 1990s the SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens coalition had passed legislation to take the country’s nuclear-power stations off-line by 2020. Under the new CDU/CSU and FDP government, however, this deadline is expected to be extended, at least for some power stations, so as to bridge possible shortfalls until alternative energy sources mature.
Wind and solar