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09/28/2009

Chancellor Angela Merkel won a second term in Sunday's federal election and will be able to form a coalition with her preferred partner, the pro-business Free Democrats, putting an end to her "grand coalition" with the center-left Social Democrats, with whom she has ruled since 2005.

Support for her conservative bloc of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), slipped compared to 2005 by 1.4 percent to 33.8 percent, according to preliminary official results. However, a 4.8 point jump for the FDP to 14.6 percent will suffice to give her a comfortable center-right majority.

The Social Democrats of challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier slumped 11.2 points to 23 percent, the worst result for the party in the 60-year history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The SPD will now go into opposition after 11 years in government.

Merkel's conservatives will hold talks with the FDP in the coming weeks to arrive at a program of tax cuts and business reforms.

Media commentators say that, despite the election victory, Merkel's CDU and the CSU are in gradual decline and will need to restore a strong conservative identity in the new government -- a process that might cost Merkel her status as "mom" of the nation if she presides over radical business reforms that polarize the country's political scene.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"If the chancellor continues to play the role of the nation's 'mom,' she will have difficulties with the FDP and her own party. But if she turns into a Margaret Thatcher-style 'iron lady,' she will lose her kudos and reputation among the population. Which means that Angela Merkel's golden era is over. The CDU has spent a long time profiting from the weakness of the SPD and drawn its strength largely from that. It was a borrowed strength. The decline of the SPD made the conservatives look stronger than they were. The CDU's support is eroding, as is the CSU's in Bavaria. The conservatives as a mass party are waning just as the SPD has already waned. The political center is being taken over by the smaller parties."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"Angela Merkel's success has failed to translate into votes for her party. One can only conclude that the conservatives have lost some of their identity and political clout, and voters no longer know what they really stand for. The conservatives are about to follow the SPD on the not-especially-smooth downward trajectory away from the status of being a mass party. The limits of the chancellor's survival skills have now become visible. There will now be stronger calls for the party to adopt a distinct identity and to pay more heed to its clientele, and rightly so."

The left-leaning Frankfurter Rundschau writes:

"The SPD lost voters to the Greens in the 1980s and to the Left Party in recent years. It will lose the status of a mass party if it keeps on trying to put up with this situation, if it seeks the safety of a grand coalition after every election. After 11 years in power, Germany's Social Democrats face a new beginning with a limited leadership team. The fact that Frank-Walter Steinmeier is staying on despite the historic debacle is an indication of how limited the supply of potential party leaders is. With or without him, the SPD must launch a tactical and programmatic offensive to win back the voters who have drifted to the Left Party. This is its opportunity in opposition -- and its only chance."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"The SPD hasn't even made any major mistakes recently that could serve as an excuse for disaster. This collapse is the result of an inner disintegration that has been going on for a long time. The SPD is a disheveled, paralyzed party. It urgently needs to drop its neurotic attitude towards the Left Party and adopt a normal relationship with it. That may be easier in opposition. But it's more than doubtful whether the SPD leadership will be able to do it."

The mass-circulation tabloid Bild writes:

"The grand coalition has been voted out -- not because it did a bad job but because voters didn't want a second round of rotten compromises. With this clear majority for a conservative-FDP government, voters have shown more courage than the politicians credited them with. This is a clear mandate for Angela Merkel and FDP leader Guido Westerwelle -- a mandate to keep to their election promises. The new government must get to grips with the national debt. Taxes must come down for everyone who is prepared to roll up their sleeves -- the small and medium-sized business sector, skilled workers, people willing to work. And the government must find clear words regarding the war in Afghanistan."