Germany's Election II

Opinion: Welcome to the New Germany - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International: "However, the interior architecture of the new Merkel-led alliance will be fundamentally different from 'black-yellow' coalitions -- the name is inspired by the parties' official colors -- of the past. In the governments of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, it was always clear who was calling the shots, because the Christian Democrats had four or five times as many seats as their liberal junior partner. That has now changed -- perhaps forever."

Many writers discuss the development in Germany due to the grand coalition between CDU and SPD which have led to the ascent of FDP, Die Linke and the Greens. CDU have lost people to FDP and SPD have lost people to Die Linke. The turn out was also low and many SPD supporters did not bother to vote.

Der Spiegel tries to make it look like Angela Merkel will not be in charge. She does "want to be the Chancellor of all Germans" so she has already spoken about a slow and gradual introduction of the new coalition partner FDP. For the EU it now means that both CDU and FDP are against an entry of Turkey into the Union, although another source speak about a pro-Turkey stance of Guido Westerwelle. SPD advocated such an enlargement for the last 11 years. This means that Berlin, Paris and Rome are against. The new coalition will also be more friendly to the French with better function of the EU as a result. I already mentioned that the FDP is more pro-Afghanistan. They also want to change the German army into a smaller private army from the current conscription variety.

What is interesting is that the anti-capitalist Left Party, Die Linke, is larger than the Green Party. They grew a little more than the Greens. Germany is in little of a fix when it comes to its energy needs because of its dependency of natural gas from Russia. The new coalition will make it possible for them to extend the operation of nuclear energy facilities for some 15 years longer which raised the stock of energy companies since profits will go up. Vattenfall AB of Sweden actually produced 23% of the electricity in Germany last year. They use a significant amount of coal.

FDP is likely to get three or four ministers. Traditionally these would be foreign, economy and justice. Merkel have pledged tax cuts but she will be reluctant in reforming the tax system, something the FDP has spoken about. Germany has one of the most complicated tax systems on Earth and FDP have discussed a new simplified three step variety. CDU wanted to cut taxes and like in Sweden the SPD was against this when they were compounding debt due to the crisis. The new coalition will be strongly pro-Lisbon Treaty, which might be cleared on Friday when Ireland votes, this will of course create frictions in the EU if the Tories win in the UK.

Angela Merkel has vowed to create the new coalition by November 9 when Germany celebrates their 20 year reunification on the day of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and many foreign guests arrive. It is good to remember that this reunification was not popular in London and Paris but was facilitated by the US.