Maggie Merkel is the man!

Angela Merkel has finally made it. With a little help from the SPD.

So what lies in store for Germany and for us expats in particular? Is Maggie Merkel the man (or woman) for the job?

Answers please...

Maybe I should start the ball rolling with my brief view on the issue. I don`t expect too much from this coalition. I think it may well turn out to be a brief episode of fudge and muddle. I don`t think Frau Merkel doesnt possesses much in the way of strong ideological conviction, the Maggie comparisons are therefore not really appropriate. Plus the fact that the CDU and SPD dont have much new to offer, and even that which they would like to serve up will have to be essentially diluted and rendered impotent by the demands of coalition government.

I don't think reform is really what the people here want when you consider the left wing parties are a bigger group in this new parliament than the right wing ones.
I think they will muddle through for a few years, but everything will be so watered down as to not have much of an effect.

I'm a little confused by your double negative, rick, but I think I agree with you in that not a hell of a lot will get done.

There is a chance, however. Reforms will be easier now that the Bundestag and Bundesrat are controlled by the same parties. It depends on the make up of the SPD's faction, which I do not know. Are they mostly the back benchers who fought Schröder's reforms, or did the Linkspartei siphon off enough of those people to leave the SPD parliamentary faction more centrist and reform-friendly. If the latter is the case, there could be a good chance for further reforms.

All of this will hopefully get sorted out in the coalition negotiations that are expected to take about a month. I'm not totally pessimistic about this, but I'm not wildly optimistic, either.

Of more concern to me is what this means for immigration law. With the Greens out, I'm not looking forward to my next trip to the immigration office.

Yup, I agree. I think if the CDU/CSU had been given a clear mandate to pursue their objectives, we might have seen significant economic progress and an upturn in Germany's fortunes, but I think they're going to have to compromise on so many key issues, the country will just stumble along for the foreseeable future. I hope I'm proved wrong though.

Maggie Merkel is just a puppet at the front doing or trying to do her bit, its the guys behind (stoiber etc ) who maybe we should be worried about...
wouldn't expect any rapid changes in any dept and definately not in the unemployment situation, the country is in need of a few changes and new ideas so maybe something positive eventually will happen...

Maybe...

The double negs were a typo error - open to interpretation!

At least the greens will be out of it, so we`ll be spared any more dosenpfand and windmill nonsense and can hopefully concentrate on the more pressing issues. But, like the other posters, Im not unduly hopeful.

On the other hand, maybe coalition and compromise is the german way.. Its just possible some positive results might come out of it. Lets not be too sceptical.

I know she's not a character but I'm glad that Germany have finally progressed so far that a woman (and one from the East) is able to be Kanzler(in).

Some UK papers were saying she's Germany's next Maggie Thatcher.

QUOI!!

If anything she's like Geoffrey Howe, who, famously, somebody once said the following about in parliament:

"Being attacked by Geoffrey Howe is liking being savaged by a dead sheep."

Ditto for Merkel!

The dead sheep of German politics.

Germany will spend the next few years stumbling along as both sides bicker there way to pathetic compromises. Worse still if a number of bills get binned because they can't agree, the chances of new elections increase and the differences between the 2 parties will grow. So don't expect anything but political paralysis for the foreseeable future. They even need the next 4 weeks to decide who's doing what. It's all about power hungry career politicians rather than effective policies.

It's a complete bodge-up by the short-sighted German electorate who thought they'd vote for a euro in their pocket today than a 2 euros next year. Now they'll lose everything eg they're too stupid to realise that if the CDU don't take away the tax advantage for night shifts, they won't have a job at all in a few years time.

I am not happy at all with the result. And being a woman and from the East even makes it worse. As Craig (?) said she's just a puppet. Good that they had to build a great coalition. At least something good will come up then.

@Bombi: Poor Guido! He is the loser of it all!

I think the real winners are the party poopers Geyser-Gysi and La-Fountaine of Yesterday`s Wisdom with his curiously named WSAG - which sounds to me more like a water utility authority or spellmull collection corporation or something. "Put the Sperrmüll out - the WSAG are coming round tomorrow morning!"

But we`ve been here before.

What? so they mean things are going to get even worse here??

Yep.

But they`re gonna get worse whether we have Maggie Merkel or not.

This country is in for a long slow decline. Its just that they havent fully woken up to the seriousness of it yet. They`re still all hoping for a round of good weather to come along and blow it all away by itself. In the meantime its a case of just keep living off the fat.

But we've all been saying this for years!! Frankly I'm quite amazed that the German electorate STILL put up with it. But until the rich start feeling the pinch, nothing will get done. There are still too many living quite cushy cushy for any real change to occur, and by that I mean a social revolution!!

Up the revolution! When do you need my list of "up against the wall" candidates?

End of business tomorrow should do fine

Yep, I think it's positive in this respect too.

Plus my holy waters tell me she's going to do a good job.

I'm with Eric on this. The propaganga Machine that Schröder created had a lot of Germans believing that things were going to get better, but it joe public donkeys years to actually cop on to the fact that the problem was at the top trying to fool the nation he had everything under control.


I have to disagree with you on that one Rick. This country has been in decline for the past three years - and other than try paint a rosy picture (remember for three years in a row the government repeatedly adjusted the national growth figures to a lower figure every quarter, and then at the end of each year magically predicted a massive 2. something % growth rate for the coming new year) Schröders cowboy outfit did this place more bad than good.

I am not a fan of the christian democrats, or that other shower of SPD muppets, but I do reckon that after a bumpy start, and maybe another election in about two and a half years, Angie will do the country an awful lot more good than Gerdie could ever do.

I think we should just wait and see, maybe Maggie Merkel will be the new Margret Thatcher of the Fatherland. I suppose every now and then a Woman in a leading position can bring in a breeze of fresh air ...

Lets just wait and see ...

Yes, my poor friend has lost and isn't going to be in the cabinet at all.

Yeah, after the men have spent years contaminating politics, one could well say that we need fresh air...

She's a very intelligent woman. She may not be a super-babe in the looks department, but neither was Schröder and he had about as much charm as a slug. I'm happy to see a woman at the top of German politics, but at the end of the day, it's whether she will get the job done which counts. And so far one hasn't really been able to rely on the men...

Well said Northern Lass.

It is irrelevant if a man or a woman is chancelor, what is needed is not just a leader, it is an empowered leader with strong convictions and the character to push things along and create continuity.

Angela Merkel is a woman, even an intelligent woman, but that's it. She has none of the other characteristics. She is in no way comparable to Margaret Thatcher, who has all the other characterisitcs, and had the appropriate majority to be able to apply them.

[EDIT: I just want to add that I am no fan of Maggie. I don't agree with her methods, but I admire her conviction and dedication to getting things turned round. Her results weren't ideal, but she led a hell of an improvement over what went before.]

Angela Merkel cannot dictate policies, policies will be decided by a committee of vested and opposing interests, so each will pull in different directions, and the end result will be no movement.

The German electoral system was devised to inhibit real leadership, and it has succeeded. Germany is approaching a similar political situation to 75 years ago. The economy was going from bad to worse, the electorate can't decide who should lead, and those they can choose from are incapable of leading and only interested in being in power...

I hope I'm wrong, but try as I can, I just can't see things getting better.


This country is not in for a long slow decline, it has been in a long slow decline since re-unification, and the decline is getting faster. The point is that the electorate here does like its "Schlaraffenland", they want to be told everything is going to be alright, they want to believe that what they've always done was right and always will be, and that if they just carry on like they always have done, everything will get better again.

Would you like to pray with me, my son?

We`re all doomed Mr Manwaring - doomed!

It's nothing but a sellout by Merkel. In order to for her to be Chancllor she had to sell out on every key point of her campaign, basically we have a Schröder government with her at the head,nothing will change. Its the whole reason they could come to an agreement, SPD loses nothing but Schröder, no big lost for them.

If you have it take a look at the WSJ Europe front page on policy comparisons, they are not even close. Yet in all the portfolios that matter SPD ministers got the job, tell me they are really going to listen to her. Not on your life, not because she's a women, but because they don't agree with here policies!

She'll be nothing but a figurehead, nothing will change and in 4 years she will get blamed.



SPD Portfolio: Foreign Affairs, Finance, Labour, Justice Environment, Transport, Aid and health

CDU: Chancellery, Economics, Interior affairs, Family, Pensions, Consumers and Agriculture, Education, Defence

That's if she lasts 4 years. No, of course you can't compare her to Maggie...yet. I think people need to wait a while to see just how Merkel turns...if she is for turning!

Yeah, the compromise they've made has just created a puppet head of government with diluted policies. No one is the winner out of the elections...especially not the German people!

interesting article