As the polls had predicted, the Social Democrats (SPD) say Yes to another grand coalition with Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU).
463723 SPD party members had been asked to decide whether to join another grand coalition under Chancellor Merkel (CDU). The result is very clear: 66% or 239 604 SPD members said Yes and only 34% or 123 329 SPD members rejected another term as Merkel’s junior partner.
The irony is that, in the past, the Social Democrats have largely set the agenda but Merkel mostly got the credit for it. The minimum wage is probably the most notable of those “achievements”. Unfortunately, it does not make sense. A unique minimum wage was imposed on the entire German territory (flächendeckender Mindestlohn), not taking into account that Euro 8.50 are a joke in Munich but are acceptable in the poor regions where rents, food, etc. are much cheaper. The party’s on the political left have already started to promise an ever higher minimal wage with Euro 12.- being already discussed. The labor market is a market. The price for labor has to be defined by the market. If you impose a minimum wage that is to high you end up with high unemployment.
Instead, the Social Democrats should have concentrated on subsidized labor introduced by Chancellor Schröder (SPD!) reforms. They are responsible for the creation of the EU’s largest low wage labor market. Some reforms by Schröder were desperately needed but there are for instance no 400-Euro-Jobs. No wonder the SPD is no longer the workers’ party.
The SPD’s options were bad from the start. Angela Merkel has moved the CDU so much to the center and even the center-left that there is not much room left for the Social Democrats at the center. Therefore, in the two recent grand coalitions, the SPD has lost millions of voters.
Logically, after the 2017 election, party members cheered the unanimous decision by the SPD party leaders the leave the grand coalition and to seek fresh air and a new profile in the opposition. However, on the very left of the political spectrum, there is already The Left (Die Linke). In addition, the Green Party is also situated on the center-left of the political spectrum and, even the infamous, right-wing populist and nationalist Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, Afd), defends ideas of the political left; the Fascists and the National-Socialists were not only nationalists, they were also socialists.
It is a good thing for Germany, the EU and the world that — after 161 days, the longest coalition building process in post-war times — Germany has finally a new government. The not so good news is that we can most likely expect another four years of stagnation.
Furter reading: The self-inflicted pain of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
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Signing of the coalition agreement for the 19th election period of the Bundestag by Andrea Nahles, leader of the Social Democratic Party since April 2018. Photo: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons / Sandro Halank.
Article added on March 4, 2018 at 14:32 Berlin time
