With the German federal elections just around the corner, I thought it might be a good time to resurrect ye olde blogge! And what an inspiring election it is..! Oh, hm, well, no, actually not. In fact, commentators in the German media have begun calling it a Nichtwahlkampf, or non-election campaign. I like the ring of un-election better, though, as it syncs pretty well with the idea of an unbirthday from Alice in Wonderland (and gives me an excuse to include youtube link). Watch, enjoy, return to text.
You see, you have unbirthdays 364 days a year, and birthdays only once. Just as you don't get any older on your unbirthday (not officially, anyway) you also don't get anything new out of an un-election. Angela Merkel, she with the mouth drooping rhetorical finesse, seems pretty well destined to remain Chancellor even after all the votes have been counted and any necessary coalition building deals have been agreed. But why? From the outside, it might be hard to understand - people in the southern European countries like drawing unflattering historical comparisons, her austerity measures have driven nearly as hysterical photo editing reactions from even respected publications, and she leaves many Germans stupefied and asking "Why?" (among other questions related to braindeath..). But among a large share of the voters, she remains well-liked, well, because she's just so well-liked! Kidding aside, her personal approval ratings are high even though, when polled, voters strongly disapprove of many of her government's policies and handling of such issues as the NSA/domestic spying affair. Love the sinner, hate the sin, functioning well in German politics!
In fairness, the other parties haven't mounted the most inspiring offence. The social-democratic SPD decided, in a national assembly (mind, they don't actually let the whole party vote on the candidate...!!), to choose Peer Steinbrück - probably the richest member of the Bundestag, or parliament - as their man to stick up for the common people. Ha! In the past, he was a big supporter of the neo-liberal reforms introduced by former Chancellor Schröder (also SPD..), which many blame for the creation of a new class of working poor - a novel development in post-war German history. This leaves local politicians battling not only other parties, but also working against the tarnished image of a wealthy Chancellor candidate who supported the very policies many of their constituents are struggling as a result of. For those who can't read German, that link is to an article about my local direct candidate to the Bundestag from the SPD, who even lets sly jabs at Steinbrück fly, ostensibly to increase her own chances of electoral success. Sigh.
The other parties don't have a chance of getting a large enough share of the vote to lead a coalition, and with the SPD having already ruled out a coalition involving the far left Linkspartei, well.. Merkel it is! Because, for most Germans, times are pretty good. With many average voters still stuck with the mindset of the Euro crisis as the fault of "the lazy Spaniards/Greeks/Italians who are just ungrateful to the hardworking, generous Germans", that issue is a non-starter. Meanwhile, the SPD is rhetorically hamstrung by their own leadership, preventing them from speaking credibly at the federal level about the said development of the working poor, and the increasing costs of living even as wages remain stagnant. And why no one sees the same ingredients for a housing bubble developing here, the way they did in the US/UK in the 2000's, I just can't understand. It's a bit like watching history repeating. As it is, the biggest issues in this Nichtwahlkampf remain rather.. tame.. by American standards. Disagreements on how best to fund universal childcare provision, the rising cost of energy in the face of a remarkable transition towards renewable sources of power, train service disruptions in Mainz and too-expensive airports and railway projects in Berlin and Stuttgart - the Germans are complaining at a high level, while ignoring or downplaying bigger issues.
And perhaps this tameness is the hardest thing for me to understand. Having come of age as a lefty during the Bush II era, I'm very used to pretty much hating the political opposition, or at least being dumbfounded by the backwardness and often the mean-spiritedness of their views. German politics just doesn't have anything like the anti-government tea party to moan about! Merkel has moved her party so far to the center that she's not all that distinguishable from Steinbrück. Everyone agrees the state should do lots of things to help people live their lives more comfortably, most people don't see any reason for the German military getting involved in other peoples' affairs, most people want their privacy protected from snooping even at the cost of "extra security". Granted, the current government isn't my cup of tea..but still, I can't really hate Merkel, because I still think she is a thinking, reasonable person with basically alright intentions though slightly misguided views of modern society. The right wing of her party is less pleasant, but marginalized, and the election posters of the far-right parties are so silly that they could appear in the Onion. Combine this with a voting system that gives everyone two votes, one for a direct constituency candidate, and the other to be used freely to "top up" the proportionally distributed seats in Parliament with any party you like... and German democracy seems to be running enviously well from an American viewpoint.
And so we'll slog along, through the unelection, and on to the status quo that comes after. And I'll sit here, mildly bemused by it all, secretly hoping for a German Michelle Bachmann to come along and get me more fired up.
