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Bickering from the Get-Go in Merkel's New Government

The bickering among Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition partners began even before the leaders of the three parties involved in the pact sat down to sign the coalition agreement on Monday in Berlin. German commentators on Tuesday say that the squabbling is merely a precursor of what is to come.

It is now official. On Monday evening in Berlin, the leaders of Germany's three coalition parties attached their signatures to the new coalition agreement, hammered out during three weeks of tough negotiations following last month's general elections. But with the ink still in the process of drying, it is becoming increasingly obvious that not everyone is particularly happy with the 124-page document.

Indeed, many within Chancellor Angela Merkel's own Christian Democrats (CDU) are skeptical of the €24 billion worth of tax cuts the coalition agreement contains. Christine Lieberknecht, the incoming CDU governor of Thüringen, warned in the daily Die Welt that if the tax plan has negative implications for her state's budget, "then we won't be able to support it."

The governor of Saarland, Peter Müller, likewise of the CDU, also said it wasn't clear that he would be able to support the tax cut package, saying there was "need for further discussion."

Bickering

Germany's states are concerned that tax cuts might mean a drop in state revenues, already under pressure as a result of the economic downturn. And their threats are far from empty. In order for the tax cuts to become law, they must be approved by the Bundesrat, Germany's upper house of parliament. Merkel's new coalition has but a thin majority in the Bundesrat, and any additional nays could sink her tax cut plans.

Health care has also provided grist for further bickering among the new coalition partners. Some in the Free Democrats (FDP), the business-friendly allies of Merkel's conservatives, have continued demanding that the health insurance system be completely revamped, despite the chancellor's having said that it won't be. Indeed, the ongoing debate makes it seem as though no coalition agreement exists at all.

German commentators on Tuesday once again sink their teeth into the promises made by Merkel's new government and examine the intra-coalition squabbling which is already well underway.

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"Never before has a new government torn into their own coalition agreement to such a degree before it was even signed. But never before has a new government begun its term with such an open commitment to unrestrained debt. 'Saving, saving, saving,' Chancellor Merkel told her party this week, is not the path to new opportunities. She could have phrased it differently: 'Debt, debt, debt.' Just a few days ago, it was referred to derogatorily as a shadow budget -- now it is being described as a way to save jobs. Whatever the case: current social expenditures will continue to be covered by new debt for the foreseeable future."

"It is the kind of policy that only the conservatives can afford. Any center-left Social Democrat government would be tarred and feathered for such a budget, even in the midst of a crisis. Each Social Democratic chancellor, even the much-maligned Willy Brandt, has demanded moderation and economic reason. Merkel now follows in the tradition of her Christian Democratic predecessors Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, both of whom used hefty expenditures to buy votes."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"If the coalition partners had just been a bit colder and more neo-liberal! One could then have coolly established the following facts. Our problem in times like these is not whether the middle class is left with €50 or €70 out of his pay raise, because there aren't all that many raises being handed out these days. Rather, our problem is that we are in no way prepared for a future in which our society will be aged and without enough children -- and one in which every fifth child leaves school without even rudimentary general knowledge. Our problem is that we still waste much too much energy and are dependent on energy sources that one shouldn't be dependent on. Our problem is not that parents who raise their children at home receive €150 more per month for their troubles. Our problem is that, in an increasing number of families, one can hardly speak of an adequate upbringing. The point should not be that of creating bleeding heart policies. One needs to coldly calculate what it will cost us in the future when fewer people work productively at exactly the time when we need more."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"A coalition agreement is like a Bible. And just as it is with the Bible, a coalition agreement depends on how it is interpreted, and sometimes, that interpretation is purely a matter of faith."

"But it is absurd when coalition partners argue about the correct interpretation of their agreement before it has even been signed. The FDP, for example, believes the document promises rapid systemic changes to the German health insurance system and that the "health fund" (eds. note: a new system to manage health insurance that Merkel's government just passed last year) is subject to change. But the Christian Social Union (CSU -- the CDU's Bavarian sister party) reads the text to mean that everything will remain as it is. The CDU also interprets the agreement as saying that the health fund will stay. There is similar disagreement about the passages relating to tax policy."

"When one hears the cacophony regarding these two particularly important policy areas, one wonders whether the conservative and FDP leadership were at the same coalition negotiations during the last three weeks. It is certainly not an agreement which gives more than just general indications as to the direction for the next four years. Instead, one has the impression that the negotiators simply wrote the document in such a way that all involved could interpret it how they want."

-- Charles Hawley