Merkel's Party Humiliated Again In Berlin

The electoral humiliations for Angela Merkel and her CDU party continue. Once again, the AfD, an anti-immigrant party, dealt the humiliation, capturing almost 14% of the vote in local Berlin elections. Unlike the most recent election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the CDU managed to hold on to second place with about 17.5% of the vote. The SPD once again won the plurality of the votes as they did in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as well. It is looking increasingly likely that the SPD will try to jettison the CDU as its partner in the governing coalition after next year’s elections and try to form a government with other left wing parties such as Die Linke and the Green Party.

After another disastrous defeat like this, speculation about whether Merkel will actually run in next year’s election is bound to grow. But the problem that her CDU party has is not that different from the problem the Conservative party had after it dethroned Margaret Thatcher – there are just not any good prospects on the bench to lead the party forward. The two most likely candidates, Ursula Von Der Leyen and Thomas de Maziere are long-time Merkel loyalists who would have to make a significant break with Merkel’s policies if they want to distance themselves from being tarnished by Merkel’s sinking popularity. The most popular choice, Wolfgang Schauble, is already 73 years old and has not shown a lot of interest in taking on the job. That almost forces Merkel to run, simply by default.

The incredible irony is that Merkel’s career may end for taking a principled stand in support of refugees. She never stood up to the German banks and forced them to take a haircut on loans to Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. And she never fought to increase German inflation which would have helped those southern European countries recover more quickly from the financial crises. Either of those actions would have benefitted Europe and the EU as a whole. Yet she is in danger of losing her chancellorship on behalf of refugees who are not even EU citizens.