The World From Berlin: 'Debate Makes Repeat of Grand Coalition More Likely'

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German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was on a high on Monday after his better-than-expected performance in the televised election debate with Chancellor Angela Merkel the night before.

"It has given us fresh wind for the next 14 days -- on the final stretch that's just what we needed," he told reporters in Berlin on the sidelines of a trade union conference. Opinion polls, media commentators and political analysts said the debate was boring because the contenders refrained from attacking each other. That's not surprising given that they might end up back in government together after the Sept. 27 election, if the outcome allows no other coalition.

Merkel, who appeared nervous at the start of the debate and didn't conceal her irritation at being interrupted by the TV moderators, is now under pressure from her conservative Christian Democrats to step up her campaign in the last two weeks of the campaign, to attack Steinmeier and bang the drum more forcefully for a coalition with her preferred partner, the pro-business Free Democrats. So after Sunday's snoozefest, the campaign may actually start to get a bit livelier.

Steinmeier seemed to have taken the gloves off on Monday, launching an uncharacteristically strong attack on Merkel in an interview with the SPD's party newspaper Vorwärts. "We're dealing with the 'me-too' chancellor," he said. "Whenever someone has a promising idea, Angela Merkel says 'me too.' That might seem clever but it's totally lacking in substance."

He added that if the conservatives end up forming a coalition with the FDP after the election and the FDP demands radical welfare cuts and tax cuts for the rich, "Merkel will again call out 'yes.'"

Steinmeier said Merkel had "unmasked" herself when she recommended that women should go to their employers and demand equal pay with men. "Instead of promoting women's rights, she's telling the women in this country: Go to your boss and beg," said Steinmeier.

Pretty good political rhetoric, one might say. It is telling that he refrained from hurling those words in Merkel's face in front of a nationwide audience when he had the chance -- in Sunday night's debate, broadcast live on four channels and watched by 14 million people.

Writing in Germany's main newspapers on Tuesday, media commentators say Steinmeier, the winner on points on Sunday, won't be able to wrest the Chancellery from Merkel on Sept. 27 -- his SPD is trailing her conservatives by too much to make up the shortfall in the time left. But he may have given his party enough of a boost to prevent a conservative-FDP coalition -- and to form another grand coalition, with himself remaining foreign minister.

Business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"The new strategy of increased confrontation is very risky. The main danger is that the conservatives and the SPD will end up turning full circle. The new attacking spirit which -- from Merkel's point of view -- is intended to prevent a repeat of the grand coalition will end up making it all the more likely.

"If the conservatives adopt a more polarizing stance and focus exclusively on trying to get a majority for the conservatives and the FDP, it will scare off the large percentage of swing voters who quite liked the socially-cushioned, cuddly chancellor of the grand coalition. In addition, many of the SPD's voters haven't been mobilized yet. Many are undecided and toying with the idea of staying at home on Sept. 27. In a polarized campaign, Steinmeier will have a better chance of turning potential voters into real voters.

"So the most boring election debate in German TV history could end up writing history in a roundabout way: as the turning point when the chancellor and the challenger started going at each other. Only to discover in the end that all the attacks led them back to square one."

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"Germany had to live through what felt like the longest evening in television history -- on four channels. Frau Merkel presented herself worse than usual, Steinmeier better. But do the Germans want to base their vote on who was in better shape on Sept. 13? The memory of even the so-called 'highlights' of the debate will fade after election day, if they even make it that far.

"But didn't one at least see that the 'old married couple' Merkel and Steinmeier would really likely to stay together? Or rather, both seemed aware that they may have to stay together after Sept. 27, if the election outcome doesn't allow any other option."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Steinmeier was the more active of two passive candidates. In a duel, the two duelists usually ride towards each other: In the case of Steinmeier and Merkel, they rode side by side. Steinmeier cut the better figure. He was stronger than one has seen him in the past, but he wasn't really strong. He was good enough to leave quite a good impression, to promote himself. But he wasn't good enough to transform sentiment and turn the election around. It may have been enough for a shift, though: away from a conservative-FDP coalition."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"Having a debate between two chancellor candidates makes little sense in a five-party system. Neither Angela Merkel nor Frank-Walter Steinmeier has a majority of their own. Their policy positions are little more than opening statements for complex coalition negotiations. Steinmeier may have succeeded on Sunday evening to give the SPD the boost it needs to secure a continuation of the grand coalition."