NOTE: This has been reposted from earlier.
The long, drawn-out drama of Election 2005 has finally come to an end. For now.
As I wrote in my last post on the German election, it was looking more and more likely that Gerhard Schroeder’s SPD and Angela Merkel’s CDU (along with the CSU, its Bavarian sister party) would form a so-called “grand coalition”. With the SPD-friendly Greens and the CDU-friendly FDP unwilling to join together in support of one of the two major parties, and with little desire for minority government, a union of the SPD and CDU emerged as the only viable option short of another election (which may yet happen if the two sides can’t work together peacefully).
And so a “grand coalition” it is, for the first time since the ’60s. The BBC reports here. According to Deutsche Welle, Merkel will be chancellor. The CDU, which edged out the SPD in the popular vote in last month’s election, will hold six cabinet posts, including defence and education. The SPD will hold eight cabinet posts, including foreign affairs, health, labour, and justice. CSU leader Edmund Stoiber is expected to be given the economy ministry. Schroeder will likely not have a post in the new government.
See also Der Spiegel:
Angela Merkel has arrived. Almost. There’s only one hurdle remaining between the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union and the chancellery — a parliamentary vote. Nevertheless, on Monday it became clear that, sometime next month, she will almost certainly become the first female chancellor in German history…
On Sunday night, as Merkel continued talks with Stoiber, Schröder and SPD party chief Franz Müntefering, the group reached a breakthrough. Then, on Monday morning, after meetings of the executive boards of both the CDU and SPD, the party leaders gathered for a final meeting. In the end, it served as a mere formality. The CDU leadership had already unanimously approved Merkel’s actions — and the national councils of both the CDU and CSU would approve the deal later in the day. A different story unfolded over at the SPD, where the executive leadership had greater problems pushing the grand coalition through — there were abstentions as well as votes against doing business with the Christian Democrats.
But there is still much left to do. Coalition negotiations will continue well past this initial agreement, and, once in power, it’s not at all clear that the two adversaries will work well together. Indeed, it would not surprise me if the “grand coalition” were to fall apart and another election were to be called sooner rather than later.
Which could lead to a more stable coalition government or throw Germany right back into another mess.
(See also Davids Medienkritik for more.)
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.