Five days ago when the election results in Germany were being announced, members of the German community, diplomats, businessmen and friends of Germany in Saudi Arabia stayed late watching the process live on large screen in the German Embassy in Riyadh. And the Sept. 18 results threw up a stalemate that the two major parties are still resolving to end.
Tracking results running on the screen tickers one could sense the worry of the German citizens; they appeared uncomfortable as the results unfolded. The German citizens I straw-polled did express their opinions on the election. And all had different views. A gentleman voted for the ruling SPD while his wife did not; another was for SPD’s main rival CDU but did not like its leader Angela Merkel. “I would have voted for CDU if Merkel were not the candidate” said a blonde lady.
Despite the great respect many Germans hold for their charismatic Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, there are many who are keen to see changes in the Chancellery and the government as well. But they did not expect a deadlock.
The vote centered on different visions of Germany’s role in the world and how to fix its slowing economy. Schroeder boasted the country’s role as a European leader and a counterbalance to America, while Merkel pledged to reform the economy and strengthen relations with Washington.
But Merkel’s move to become Germany’s first female chancellor puts those finance reform plans in doubt. “If elected, Merkel will reap the results of Schroeder’s latest reforms,” A German observer commented.
The reason why Schroeder called for early elections lies in the federal characteristics of Germany. Many of the laws passing the Bundestag also require approval of the second chamber, the Bundesrat, which represents the states’ (Bundesländer) governments.
When Schroeder called for early elections, the long-lasting SPD-led government in Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany’s biggest single state, had just been defeated by the CDU-led opposition. This meant that the Bundesrat now comprises an overwhelming majority of CDU/CSU-led state governments (43 seats out of 69), excluding grand coalitions. With this outcome, it has become even more difficult for the federal government to pass any legislation against the will of the federal opposition.
However, the Bundestag cannot dissolve itself. According to the German Basic Law, only the federal president may do so upon request by the chancellor after the latter has lost a vote of confidence in the Bundestag. Therefore, on July 1, 2005, Schroeder put forward a vote of confidence with the intention of losing it in order to ask President Horst Köhler to dissolve the Bundestag and announce early general elections. The trust vote was lost because 148 MPs from the governing party abstained. Politicians from the opposition, and even some SPD and Green MPs, have criticized what they regard as an “artificially lost” vote of confidence.
The election then brought about a situation in which no party won. In Sunday’s election, the CDU/ CSU took 225 seats, against SPD’s 222. The FDP took 61 seats, yielding total backing for Merkel of 286, well short of the 307 required in the initial balloting for the chancellor in the Bundestag.
The Greens, who have been in coalition with the SPD for the past seven years, secured 51 seats. The Left Party took 54 seats, placing it fourth behind the FDP and ahead of the Greens. The Bundestag meets on Oct. 18 at the latest to begin the process of choosing a new chancellor, by which time the parties aim to have established the outlines of a coalition capable of governing.
The election results left Chancellor Schroeder’s coalition of SPD and Greens without the overall majority in Parliament but conservative leader Merkel of CDU and her coalition of sister party Christian Democrats and their supporters the pro-business Free Democrats also failed to win a majority.
The results were described as disastrous for both parties and the outcome raised many scenarios; one is of a grand coalition between the two main parties, which some analysts fear could lead either into a “government in limbo” or to a political and economic deadlock.
Schroeder has ruled out any coalition with his old political foe Oskar Lafontaine and his Left Party; he also dismissed the possibility of Merkel becoming the next chancellor in case of a grand coalition. The smaller remaining parties have expressed their positions for future coalition each in its own way with both the FDP and the Greens wanting to push their agendas forward by asking the bigger parties to offer major concessions for their support.
Despite the fact that the inconclusive election results dampened Germans’ hopes of instituting reforms that would provide a push to their economy, the sophisticated electoral system of Germany, the high turnout of voters and the serious sense of responsibility among German people reflect their political maturity as a leading democracy.
