Editorial: grand question mark straightens into grand coalition

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Photo: Urmas Nemvalts

The post-election observations, by many, proved right: despite the hardships and hurdles, Germany again gets a so-called grand coalition i.e. a broad-based cabinet made up of Christian democrats (CDU/CSU) led by Angela Merkel and soc dems (SPD). The negotiations took months and were no piece of cake for participants thereof; even so, the outcome may prove quite stable – rather fresh in their memories linger both positive and negative experience from cooperation in 2005–2009.

On September 22nd, parliamentary elections elevated Ms Merkel’s party into heights of jubilation, while also hoisting a question mark. The Chancellor-led CDU/CSU towered above the rivals, pocketing 41.5 per cent of votes. Regrettably, however, their current ally, the liberal FDP, failed to cross the threshold. Surely, many ideas harboured by SPD are against the Christian democrat’s grain; the soc dems, in their turn, are still licking the wounds of the 2009 defeat. Even so, the latter loomed as likeliest coalition partner of all. Indeed, there was not too much choice: Ms Merkel’s talks with the greens ground to a halt pretty fast.

So: on the one hand, the birth of grand coalition was supported by the vast mandate awarded by voters to the Chancellor. On the other hand, however, it came about by lack of a better alternative. A possible leftish union under SPD banner would have looked way too unsafe, as – greens aside – the left-wing Die Linke, as a partner, would have been a wild card. Surely, future political manoeuvres cannot be excluded; still, right now a signal of failed talks would have sown disquiet into the German society, eurozone, and finance markets alike.

This, no doubt, was the reason hundreds of thousands of SPD-members decisively voted at in-party elections to hook up with Ms Merkel. Surely, SPD has played its cards well. In addition to numerous key points pressed into the coalition agreement, they may now gloat about the internal elections not being a dubious experiment by rather a shining example of participatory democracy.

In all probability, today and tomorrow (when coalition treaty gets its signatures and government is sworn in) the new German coalition will be the talk of all Europe. SPD internal elections were carefully covered by bulk of media. The birth of a governing coalition equals stability for the supporting pillar of European Union, for the union itself, and thereby for all its members – Estonia included. No doubt, the German right-left marriage makes for this year’s European Christmas Melody, hummed with much inner contentment in many a capital on the continent.

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