German government parties sink faster than the economy

What follows is my English translation of a short article originally in Italian, published on Movisol.org yesterday, Monday 11th November 2024. (Emphasis mine).

Sahra Wagenknecht - from EuroNews.

No one is currently betting on the future of the government coalition in Berlin. And there is good reason for this, given the infighting. For example, an 18-page document by Finance Minister Christian Lindner (of the FDP) proposing a stimulus to the economy has met with strong opposition from the other two coalition partners (SPD and Greens). The SPD is opposed to Lindner's demand to drastically cut social spending, while the Greens are opposed to the proposal to cut funding for climate protection projects. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has therefore convened emergency meetings to try to resolve these internal government disputes in what insiders call the “decision week”. Should he fail to do so, Scholz could call for a vote of no confidence in the Bundestag to force members of the three coalition partners to publicly support him.

If this also fails, the leader of the largest opposition party (the CDU) Friedrich Merz could try to replace the chancellor with a vote of no confidence. To secure a majority, however, he would need solid guarantees of support from the Greens and the FDP. Merz cannot even be sure of all the votes of the CDU-CSU parliamentary groups, as his outrageous support for the war against Russia in Ukraine, including the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev, is not appreciated by many party members. Especially in the three eastern German states of Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony, the CDU is more anti-war and pro-diplomacy, and in the latter two states it is engaged in talks with the BSW (party of Sahra Wagenknecht, photo) to form a regional government coalition. While Merz flirts with the idea of a new national government coalition with the Greens, CDU leaders are against it in all three states.

If Merz fails to replace Scholz, early national elections will be on the horizon. In this case, however, the only party that would likely gain votes would be the BSW, while the AfD (Alternative for Germany) would probably remain at the same level and the other four would collapse further.

In the meantime, everyone predicts that the German economy will continue to sink and none of the parties are addressing this issue competently. The news from Volkswagen, the country's largest carmaker, on which the steel and chemical sectors, not to mention thousands of other suppliers, depend to a large extent, is devastating and comes on top of the staggering collapse of the real estate and construction sectors, delivering a message: a competent German government should abandon all policies of budget cuts and climate protection and instead launch a shock programme for industry and infrastructure, of the kind adopted by the progressive BRICS group of countries. Furthermore, Germany must pull out of the war in Ukraine and stop its march towards a war economy. At least at the moment, the German political elites are unable to do so.

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