While the SPD is part of the government coalition and Chancellor Olaf Scholz is a member of the SPD, how can this impression of erosion of the party of social democrats be explained? This Sunday, May 15, the land of North Rhine-Westphalia will also be up for election. Decryption with Kai Littmann, German journalist and director of eurojournalist.eu.
For Kai Litttmann, this impression is not wrong. Last week, in Schleswig-Holstein, the SPD lost 11% of the vote and the CDU, the conservatives won 11 as well. So there is a bit of a slip to the right. And indeed, this election this Sunday, May 15 in North Rhine-Westphalia, these are very important elections because it is a very large Land, the most populated Land in Germany, i.e. the population of Switzerland and of Belgium combined, more than 17 million inhabitants. And so this is the first real test for the Scholz government.
For Kai Littmann, the reaction to government policy in the context of the war in Ukraine, where the German government is considered by many to be a little soft, has an influence on regional elections. Moreover, the Chancellor is someone who has a bit “the charisma of an accountant”. It is not in his personality to play the leader, to put himself forward, to make big declarations, he is not charismatic enough to mobilize the crowds.
What is more, we also note in Germany, for example in the Schleswig-Holstein elections, less appetite for voters to go to the polls. 40% of voters abstained, did not go to vote. We enter an almost French perspective in abstentionism. Is this a denial of political parties? That would be a very, very bad thing for German democracy.
It was not the same in the time of Angela Merkel. For Kai Littmann, Angela Merkel had excellent communication. She knew how to talk to Germans, in such a way that every German would think she was talking to him personally. This is not the case of the current chancellor. Today the Germans do not really feel challenged by the character.
For Kai Littmann, the future of the current government will depend above all on the evolution of two major issues, first of all the war in Ukraine and the Covid 19 pandemic. How will the German government manage the rest? of this pandemic which is anything but over? So there too, the government will have to give the right answers to the Germans’ questions. Otherwise Germany, like France, will probably enter into a kind of governmental crisis.
Without forgetting the question of energy. Germany is totally dependent on Russian gas, so it is now looking for alternatives. Currently, already, the sanctions imposed on Russia are beginning to affect Germany a lot, with an inflation rate unknown since the 80s. With all these questions, the government will not have an easy task.
A question remains concerning the war in Ukraine. What would have happened if Angela Merkel had stayed in power? For Kai Littmann, it would have been easier today at the diplomatic level, because Angela Merkel had a huge advantage, she spoke Russian, knew the culture, the Russian mentality, and had an excellent relationship with Vladimir Putin. She was respected in the Kremlin as in Washington. What is missing today on the diplomatic scene, it would really take a personality respected everywhere, who tries to carry out a diplomatic action. Angela Merkel would have been the perfect person to do it.