Former German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Courtesy of Wikimedia.
By Hilary Ng Wunt Sang ’25
Staff Writer
On Sept. 26, Germany held a historically close election after chancellor Angela Merkel stepped down. Her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), obtained 24.1 percent of the votes — their lowest in many generations. Still the CDU came in at only 1.6 percent less than the relative majority winner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), as reported by The New York Times. In order to obtain a parliamentary majority, either party will have to form a coalition with the next-best winners, the Green Party and the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP).
According to Karen Remmler, chair of German studies, this shift of more than 2 million voters from the CDU to the SPD can possibly be explained by Merkel’s leave, as well as her talent for rallying voters on a wide range of issues.
Former Ambassador to the European Union and Visiting Professor of international relations Natalie Sabanadze explained, Merkel was a “formidable figure whose presence nobody could deny.” She added, “It could almost be said that Armin Laschet — her successor — is not popular because he is not her,” she continued.
Another reason for the SPD’s win, Remmler asserted, is that many of its constituents used their vote as a form of protest against Merkel’s conservative policies. For example, “Bavaria’s resistance to Merkel’s asylum policies might have to do with irrational fear about losing its identity as the white ‘heartland’ of Germany,” she explained.
According to Reuters, Germany has made historical steps toward progressive policy with this election: two transgender women, for example, won seats in parliament. While there is some evidence for a leftward shift in politics in the country, the reemergence of alt-right parties such as the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) demonstrates the acute fragmentation of political ideology in the region. Although many major cities such as Berlin, Munich and Cologne all voted majority Green, states such as Saxony and Thuringia were the primary backing for the AfD, The New York Times stated.
“This need for a coalition between more than two parties is a sign of the kind of political fragmentation which has not been seen by Germany in a long time”
As reported by The New Yorker, Germany has often been the European center of stability, but the formation of majority coalitions has begun to cause turmoil. As asserted by Sabanadze, the Green Party and the FDP are the “kingmakers” of this situation, as their choice to form a coalition with the SPD or CDU will ultimately decide which party ends up with parliamentary control. Both runner-up parties, however, have vastly differing agendas, and the coalition talks have been predicted by The New York Times to last months. The desired majority will require a coalition of three parties or more, and the smaller parties have been reported by The New Yorker to be thinking of collaboration, Sabanadze speculated, in order to mitigate the risk of losing this rare opportunity.
Finally, as maintained by Sabanadze, this election represents the end of an era. “This need for a coalition between more than two parties is a sign of the kind of political fragmentation which has not been seen by Germany in a long time,” Sabanadze said.
Remmler speculated that this is a result of the increasingly diverse and nationalism-averse population in the European Union seeking non-traditional political alternatives — hence the disappearance of the volkspartei (people’s parties) of old.