Blunder-man Laschet pushes Merkel’s CDU off the ledge, Germany into blind alley of coalition politics
Elections in Germany have turned out a new winner with the Social Democrats (SPD) having a thin lead over outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s Christian Democrats (CDU). The SPD and their candidate Olaf Scholz have won 25.7 per cent of the votes, the CDU who had the gaffe-prone Armin Laschet as their Chancellor candidate have to be content with 24.1 per cent only.
After 16 years of Merkel at the helm, her party has faced its worst-ever result in a national election. The voters preferred to go with the current Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor who radiated an aura of reliability, rather than take a risk with Laschet who made headlines this summer for laughing inappropriately at a solemn occasion and carries a reputation of being not enough ‘statesman-like’.
The close results and the one per cent that divides the two main parties means Europe‘s biggest economy is on course for a lengthy haggling on who will form the next Government. Since coalition building takes time, Merkel would continue as caretaker Chancellor for quite some time.
COALITION WOES
Both Scholz and Laschet have staked claim to form the next Government. Their options are to form a grand coalition and continue the arrangement of the past years as also to see their support base further erode or individually try to form a three-party coalition with two Opposition parties – the environmentalist Greens who are SPD friendly and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) who have an affinity with the CDU.
Heute ist Wahltag! Wählen zu können, ist ein hohes Gut. Alle, die es noch nicht per Briefwahl oder auf anderen Wegen getan haben: Geht wählen und entscheidet euch für eine gute Zukunft – für bezahlbaren Wohnraum, stabile Renten und eine klimaneutrale Wirtschaft. Packen wir’s an. pic.twitter.com/Beiqlnpccg
— Olaf Scholz (@OlafScholz) September 26, 2021
If Scholz or Laschet attempt a coalition with the FDP and Greens who are in opposite ideological camps, they would have to do a balancing act between saving the climate or propping up the German automobile industry, building and subsidising more wind power and renewable sources of energy or focusing on fossil fuels.
The Greens and the FDP are ideological adversaries in the European Union too with the Greens being for EU integration and the FDP, not the biggest of supporters when it comes to financial support from debt-laden countries of southern Europe.
SCHOLZ HAS ADVANTAGE
So Scholz, who has a one per cent advantage over Laschet, has his work cut out for him if he wants to form a coalition with the two parties. And Laschet can rue the day he was caught laughing on camera at the remembrance ceremony for victims of the deadly floods that affected western Germany. He was polling ahead of Scholz at that time.
`Tollpatschig` or clumsy is one word that one can associate with Laschet and was the abiding theme throughout his campaign and he ended his campaign with a final blunder. He was photographed with his ballot choices (two ticks for the CDU) visible in a final blunder of a rocky campaign.
German election rules dictate that the vote choice has to be a secret and the ballot folded in such a way that the choices cannot be seen. But unfortunately for Laschet, he folded it in such a way that his choices were on the outer fold, photographed and one of the trending topics on Twitter.