Merkel wins, Social Democrats lose big time ... SPIEGEL 09/27/2009

[Call Me Wesley]

Merkel Wins German Election, Has Majority for Center-Right Government


German Chancellor Angela Merkel secured a second term in office following Sunday's vote: "I am happy to have achieved a great thing."

German voters re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and allowed her to ditch the center-left Social Democrats from her government and form a coalition with her preferred partner, the pro-business Free Democratic Party, instead, according to reliable projections.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a second term in Sunday's federal election and will be able to form a government with the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), dumping the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) with whom she has ruled since 2005 in an uneasy coalition, projections showed.

She will have a comfortable center-right majority in the Bundestag lower house of parliament with an estimated 323 seats, 15 more than the absolute majority of 308 seats, according to a projection broadcast on ZDF television.

Well, thank you, Social-Democrats for running the worst campaign ever with the worst people you could gather and your unwillingness to work with some who were on your side. You tried to be more center-right than the CDU, now you can go and whine all you want.

[FarCenter]

1. Both the Greens and the Left Party made good gains

Total vote for left of center parties seems to be down very little.

[Call Me Wesley]

2. Yes, but the sad part is that

the SPD will in no way collaborate with them.

[FarCenter]

3. Perhaps the SPD will at least cooperate with the Greens

I guess the bad blood with Mr. LaFontaine and the Left is too great.

[Call Me Wesley]

5. We'll see, but I'm not really hopeful.

They've distanced themselves way too much from the Greens, too. And the battles in their own party regarding leadership didn't actually help. LaFontaine, yes, that's really bad blood there. Somewhat understandable, though.

So they now have Kohl government again. Let's hope that forcing the SPD into the opposition will make them stronger. Guido Westerwelle (FDP) will probably be the new Secretary of State, because that's the position he always wanted. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how he, being openly gay, will be treated by some countries.

[FarCenter]

11. Do you think there will be any change in foreign policy with regard to Russia

The CDU seem pretty friendly with the Chinese at any rate.

[Call Me Wesley]

14. Merkel is not really fond of Russia,

and she and Putin have quite an icy relationship, which may go back to her upbringing in the GDR. And - I have to give this to her - she pissed China off by officially inviting the Dalai Lama and her claim that she will support his cause. Funny enough, the only opposition came from ex-SPD leader Kurt Beck, who said that he didn't oppose the visit, but would have 'chosen a more secretive place ...' That was pretty lame.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. Um .... Beck ?? Naw -- couldn't be. nt

[Call Me Wesley]

17. Kurt Beck,

not Glenn Beck. ;)

[DFW]

20. Under Schröder, the SPD and the Greens had a coalition government

Since the Left Party contains some unreconstructed defenders of the shootings at the Berlin Wall,
there is still a lot of bad blood, and Lafontaine is a headline-loving demagogue, out for himself,
not the Party. If the left manages to clean house, they'll become more than a regional Eastern
political force with a few western token stars, but it'll take some time. Until then, they are
not deserving of a part in a government, and the SPD will only damage themselves (as they did
this time) in not clearly stating that they will not join them (in their present constellation)
in a government. My wife, a German voter, decries the lack of either of the main parties'
willingness to state clear positions. They seem more eager to be wishy-washy in the hope of
garnering votes (sound familiar?). Now that most of the extreme fundamentalist Greens have
left the Green Party, she voted for them. The Greens were split for a while between the
"fundamentalists" and the "realists." Most of the "Fundalos" have gone to Die Linken (The Left),
and the Greens that stayed have become more of the kind of party she felt she could vote for.

This election result is no tragedy. Merkel's CDU has seen no reticence in raising taxes when
they saw the need, and they support maintaining a social safety net of welfare and health care that
would make Obama blush as being too radical for American consumption (it's not: try us--PLEASE!).

One of the complaints most often heard about this German election is that it would be too boring.
Considering Germany's 20th century past and current situation, boring is not too bad at all.

[malaise]

4. Damn

damn damn!

[Call Me Wesley]

8. It was kind of expected.

I still despise the FDP; once they had great political minds and then turned against the SPD (under Helmut Schmidt) and went with the ones they thought would be the winners. Many great FDP politicians left their party because of this.

Since then, they just seem to go with the wind, whatever would bring them to power again. Shameful.

[TheBigotBasher]

6. She would be considered "communist" by Rethugs.

There are lessons here for the GOP but they will not learn.

[Call Me Wesley]

7. Oh yes,

what we call here 'center-right' is pretty modest by US standards. But there are some issues where they really tend right, and this is workers/seniors issues to name a few. There they can do harm.

[JackRiddler]

9. It's not the end of the world...

The CDU under Merkel, even now that they will be unleashed with the FDP, are not bad in the way of the Republicans here. In fact, they're better on questions of social welfare, health and education than, um, the Democrats and Obama! They're also not going to find reasons to invade anyone, and probably won't participate in the AfPak escalation despite this vote.

Everyone, keep the SPD was in the government! They are as responsible for Merkel's policies as she was!

They are paying a deserved price for having participated in a Grand Coalition with the CDU. Both big parties lost ground as a result, but the SPD far more, and the pick-up for the Left and the Greens is good news. In another four years, a genuine left government might win, rather than the neoliberal vinegar of the SPD.

[Call Me Wesley]

10. I agree with some points.

On state level, the left/Greens won the last elections.

End of the world? Surely not. As I stated upthread, what we call 'center-right' here are very modest politicians. There's no comparison to neocons for them.

[western mass]

12. same will happen in the UK and US next elections

corporate Labour and corporate Democrats have sold out their liberal supporters in both countries, and they're going to pay the price.

[Call Me Wesley]

13. I don't think so.

The very left has gained state-wise in Germany, and today's election showed a huge gain for the Green/very left, so, even with almost no power yet, they're the hidden winners. We'll see what follows and what will be the interaction between Green and the Left party and the SPD in the end.

For the UK, the Labour Party gave their liberal issues away a long time ago.

So, work needs to be done.

[GreenPartyVoter]

21. But there will be no Greens or Left here picking up seats due to our

voting and government structure. You can have this or this, but never that, that, or those.

[MadHound]

28. Umm, it's already happened here in the US

Clinton was nothing more than a good corporate Democrat, as is Obama, or haven't you been paying attention.

[Odin2005]

16. Damn!

My condolences to the Germans.

[Call Me Wesley]

18. They survived this before.

It's not like the neocons are in power now. Besides, the real winner of this election isn't the CDU, it's the FDP, so it'll be fun to see how they w3ill push the CDU around and what positions they get.

Actually, both CDU and SPD (reading the latest turnouts) have the lowest gain since 1949.

[Call Me Wesley]

19. Quick guide to Germany's political parties:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,651388,00.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

22. Thanks. That will help clarify things for me a bit. :^)

[Confusious]

23. Merkel's Breasts Threaten To Burst Out of Dress, Capture Poland

HAHAHA

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1151483,00.jpg

Sorry, I was looking up some of the things people were talking about here, and ran across this. Thought it was funny.

[DAMANgoldberg]

24. Nice shot...

Ms Merkel is quite tolerant and friendly with the Obama's. She didn't even want Shrub around her. Center-right. Sounds like Blue Dogs (Heath Schuler in WNC). Lets face it, way left don't work around here and way right is dying off (Hagan, Perdue, McCrory (hizzoner for 2 more months, his replacements are centrists/uptowners), Watt, W. Jones, Spratt (SC-5) in the SC suburbs.)

[proteus_lives]

26. That's a good one or should I say good pair?

:rofl:

German engineering at it's finest. ;-)

[tomcat3691]

25. Totally agree with you.

Hi, I am totally agree with you.

[depakid]

27. As Labour in Britain will learn later this year- it doesn't pay to pander to the right

and adopt their policies.