German elections: Merkel creates history

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Angela Merkel waves as she addresses supporters after exit polls were broadcast on television in Berlin. — AFP photo

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury The victory of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the hard-fought national elections has not come as a surprise. She has narrowly fallen short of the absolute majority. But Merkel has carved out a niche for herself in the post-war German history through this election. For, she has returned to power for the third term in a row - a feat that has few parallels in Germany. This extra-ordinary electoral success has come after many years in a country which is not much willing to return to power the incumbent government. Angela Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has elbowed out the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) with a wide gap in the popular votes although the gap in terms of seats is a relatively close race. The CDU and its ally CSU have garnered more than 41 per cent of the votes while the SDP had to remain content with nearly 26 per cent of the votes. Merkel's share in the 630-member Bundestag (parliament) is 311 seats - a little short of the absolute majority. It is the collapse of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), her ally, which failed to secure a minimum five per cent of the votes required to win any seat in the parliament - a slump of 10 percentage against the last elections in 2009 - robbed the Chancellor the outright victory. Although the combined seats of the SDP, the Greens and the far-left Linke Party would give them a majority of 319 seats, both the SDP and the Greens ruled out any links with the Linke. In the process, Angela Merkel is totally safe and is now in the hunt for an ally for coalition government. The victory is seen by most analysts as a personal triumph of Merkel, the most powerful politician in Europe these days. She has already established herself as the most influential woman leader in the world. Her firmness in dealing sensitive and debatable issues, along with an unassailable ascendancy in the party affairs, has raised her to a new height in politics. In the most recent times, what other women leaders in power in the developed nations could not achieve, Merkel has been doing that - successfully confronting opposition both party-wise and within her own organisation. Australia's Julia Gillard was the victim of her failure to maintain command in her party as she was given a taste of her own medicine by Kevin Rudd, who overthrew her from party leadership as he himself was the victim earlier in the same fashion engineered by Gillard. The German Chancellor reminds one British Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher - even though Merkel is not as such called a "tough" person. She has not been either aggressive or abrasive. Merkel steered Germany through a difficult period during the term that has just ended as several problems, including the Eurozone issue, emerged as quite contentious matters. Her austerity measures might have dismayed many Germans, but at the end of day, she has been able to convince most of her countrymen that this has been a pragmatic policy which deserved to be supported. Germany often feels the need for taking the centre stage in international affairs though it is not a member of the United Nations Security Council. Merkel's strong presence in the global affairs has given the Germans that impression of world leadership. Though her country is inextricably linked with the West, she followed an independent policy in key foreign policy matters including the Iraq and Afghan crises and, of late, on the Syrian civil war. Merkel demonstrated patience and wisdom in dealing with the economic issues that have direct bearing on her country and Europe. Thirty eight per cent of the voters in the polls have said that they supported the CDU-CSU mainly because of the personality of Chancellor Angela Merkel and this is a measure of her popularity in German politics. There must not be any illusion that Merkel's win has been overwhelming as the percentage of popular votes and the number of seats would suggest, but the bottom line is that taking the CDU-CSU to power for the straight three terms is no mean achievement. This will help both Germany and, personally, Merkel, who originally came from erstwhile East Germany, play a more important role in world affairs. The SDP, which was once led by such world figures like Willy Brandt, must be licking its wounds. The party needs a revamp; it should bring itself closer to the electorate on key issues. [email protected]