The new-comers’ truth
Old political tactics strike back sometimes
Source of the photo: Deutche Welle
Many years ago, when I was preparing for my university application, I was convinced that politics is extremely interesting. When actually studying about international relations and European affairs, I already had some clue that if we keep repeating the same circles, maybe it is not that thrilling. My professional career has unfortunately confirmed this theory. It is undoubtedly stressful occasionally, but not that exciting all the time as I imagined.
I don’t know how you feel about German elections talks, but I am getting a bit tired. I don’t want to underestimate at all the difficulty of forming a government between partners that were reluctant to do the same thing even four years ago. But even a week after the September elections, at the dawn of Jamaica negations, it was the only logical thing to do, despite all the efforts to find a common denominator between diverging interests and values. When the liberals finally gave up on entering into government with the conservatives and the greens, the destiny of social democrats and conservatives to reunite their marriage of convenience seemed to be inevitable.
Or, at least this is what we, outsiders say from our comfortable Brussels offices, say so, when waiting for Europe’s most influential state to finally take back the driver seat. At the same time, the German public opinion is deeply divided that tells a lot about profound changes of political preferences. A recent poll by INSA concluded that only 32 percent of voters are in favour of the GroKo, while 27 would prefer a new election. Also, 17 percent would opt for minority government, and 15 percent still see the chance of a Jamaica coalition.
The situation in the SPD seems to be more and more hopeless. The party’s leader Martin Schulz stated hundred times during the campaign that he won’t participate in a government lead by Angela Merkel. With a bit of nastiness in our voice, we can add that it was then. The political rationality has overwritten his original intentions. Although, there came some golden moments when he got very close to position himself as the saviour of Europe, who is willing to sacrifice his party’s and his own credibility for the sake of the country and the European integration. But those days appear to be gone. Just look at the “Mercron” titles from Davos Summit, where it was again Chancellor Merkel stealing away the show from Schulz. The already quoted INSA poll has also shown that the SPD’s support further dropped to 18 percent from their 20,5 percent election result. Which is another frightening sign.
When the FDP’s young chief Christian Lindner gave up coalition talks, saying that “it’s better not to govern than to govern badly”, he was blamed to be irresponsible and selfish by many. Kevin Kühnert, the 28-year-old leader of the SPD’s youth wing Jusos applied a similar logic, and rebelled against the GroKo, arguing that the party should be rebuilt from the scratches in order to have a credible alternative for the next elections.
As a slightly disillusioned supporter for the political science realist schools, I also appealed for the grand coalition’s necessity. Still, that sleeping idealist deep in my heart admires these young politicians that appreciate credibility and long-term gains more than the interests of the moment. In a way, they turn out to be wiser than Schulz-like veterans, who are very close to be side-lined again in the race for the hearts and minds of German voters and the European public opinion as well. It also rings the bell that politics is maybe not that tiring as it seems to be after having observed it for years. Maybe we just need to change a bit our point of view.