German guy
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2010
- Messages
- 5,187
- Reaction score
- 4,255
- Location
- Berlin, Germany
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Moderate
To answer the question: No, I don't think it will for the time being.
But the German press is asking this question now, since the German coalition government of conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and libertarian Free Democrats (FDP), in office only since 8 months, is as unpopular as never before in polls, and under heavy criticism for lack of unity and leadership by Merkel.
Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Vice Chancellor Guido Westerwelle (FDP)
Letter from Berlin: Has Muddling Merkel Lost Her Touch? - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
So the coalition partners of CDU, CSU and FDP seem to be more busy picking on each other than on the opposition. And the coalition has dropped in polls as low as never before -- the FDP even seems to have alienated 2/3rds of their voters within 9 months only (down from 14.6% in the September 2009 election to 5% to 6% only in polls), the CDU/CSU down to 31% (from 33.8%). Winners are the opposition parties of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) with 29% (up from 23.0% in September), the environmentalist Green Party with 15% to 18% (up from 10.7%) and the socialist Left Party with 11% to 12% -- the opposition leading by almost 20% of the votes (ca. 55%) ahead of the coalition (ca. 37%) in polls.
Only 20% still claim to be satisfied with the work of the coalition government, while 78% are dissastisfied:
Merkel's and Westerwelle's personal public support numbers have significantly dropped as well.
What do you think?
But the German press is asking this question now, since the German coalition government of conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and libertarian Free Democrats (FDP), in office only since 8 months, is as unpopular as never before in polls, and under heavy criticism for lack of unity and leadership by Merkel.
Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Vice Chancellor Guido Westerwelle (FDP)
Fighting, bickering and name-calling. Eight months after voters returned Angela Merkel to the Chancellery at the head of a center-right coalition, her government is not cutting a good figure. Some are asking if the chancellor herself has forgotten how to lead.
She has been called Germany's Margaret Thatcher. She has been compared favorably to the "Iron Chancellor," the country's well-respected pre-World War I leader Otto von Bismarck. At the beginning of this year, Time magazine even dubbed German Chancellor Angela Merkel as "Frau Europe."
These days, though, Merkel is striking a dramatically different figure. Just eight months into her second term in office, her center-right coalition appears frayed and it has shown a clear preference for infighting to governing in recent weeks. Even more concerning, repeated efforts by the chancellor to turn down the volume on the bickering have failed. Increasingly, Germany's erstwhile strongwoman is looking weak, like she has lost her leadership touch.
"She seems to be just muddling through," Gero Neugebauer, a political science professor at Berlin's Free University, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Her government is behaving like mere bookkeepers. And bookkeepers are just that -- they are not the head of the enterprise."
It is an impression that has been building throughout the year. Merkel was heavily criticized both domestically and internationally for her molasses-like response to the Greek debt crisis, which earned her the nickname "Madame Non," and voters in North Rhine-Westphalia delivered her party a thrashing in a state vote there in May. But as disagreements within her governing coalition have exploded into the headlines this week, there are some who speculate that Merkel's second term could very well end prematurely.
Fierce Criticism
Ironically, much of this week's bickering was triggered by Merkel's effort to finally try to provide her government with a clear mission. With Europe mired in a national debt crisis, the chancellor and her cabinet agreed on Monday to an austerity package designed to save €80 billion by 2014. Merkel, it seemed for a brief moment, would go down in history as the chancellor who not only guided Germany through the global financial crisis, but also balanced the budget afterwards.
Just days later, however, it looks as though that encyclopedia entry might have to wait. Criticism of her austerity program has been fierce, with many of the barbs coming from within her own governing coalition. Indeed, leading members of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) have blasted the package for placing too great of a burden on Germany's poor while leaving the better off untouched. Some have proposed raising taxes on those in the upper brackets -- a suggestion which, in turn, has made her already-pouting coalition partners from the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) positively apoplectic. (...)
Wild Sow and Cucumbers
Still, the austerity package debate is just one front in the intra-coalition war currently being waged. And, if anything, it is the more civilized one. Of particular note is the exchange of insults this week between the FDP and the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's CDU. For months, the two parties have tussled over competing ideas on health care reform, with Health Minister Philipp Rösler, a member of the FDP, repeatedly being singled out for critique from Bavaria.
Earlier this week, the FDP ran out of patience. Daniel Bahr (FDP), a high-ranking official in Rösler's Health Ministry, said that the CSU was behaving like a "wild sow, they are only being destructive." In response, CSU General Secretary Alexander Dobrindt blasted the FDP as a "troop of cucumbers" -- an affront in the insult-poor German language which is roughly akin to calling the party a gaggle of bumbling idiots. The CSU also called on Merkel to clear the waters.
Merkel, though, has been having difficulties doing so lately. No matter what she says these days, the bickering seems to continue -- and public support for her government continues to fall. A recent public opinion poll found that just 5 percent of the German public approve of the FDP, down from 14.6 percent on election day last September. Approval of Merkel's conservatives is at a four-year low. (...)
Letter from Berlin: Has Muddling Merkel Lost Her Touch? - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
So the coalition partners of CDU, CSU and FDP seem to be more busy picking on each other than on the opposition. And the coalition has dropped in polls as low as never before -- the FDP even seems to have alienated 2/3rds of their voters within 9 months only (down from 14.6% in the September 2009 election to 5% to 6% only in polls), the CDU/CSU down to 31% (from 33.8%). Winners are the opposition parties of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) with 29% (up from 23.0% in September), the environmentalist Green Party with 15% to 18% (up from 10.7%) and the socialist Left Party with 11% to 12% -- the opposition leading by almost 20% of the votes (ca. 55%) ahead of the coalition (ca. 37%) in polls.
Only 20% still claim to be satisfied with the work of the coalition government, while 78% are dissastisfied:
Merkel's and Westerwelle's personal public support numbers have significantly dropped as well.
What do you think?