German presidential election: A warning shot for Merkel
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/pers-j02.shtml
2 July 2010
Many editorials have praised Wednesday's presidential election as evidence
of Germany's properly functioning democracy. They justify this by saying
that a number of delegates from the government camp voted for the opposition
candidate.
In reality, there are few events in recent political history that have been
so systematically and cynically manipulated as Wednesday's election.
It was the culmination of a campaign by the business and political
establishment to call the Merkel government to order.
There are no differences concerning the basic outlines of Merkel's political
course: fiscal consolidation at the expense of the poorest social layers and
an aggressive foreign policy (participation in the Afghanistan war, austerity
diktats against Greece and other indebted countries). These policies find
general support in parliament, including in the ranks of the nominal
opposition.
But there has been considerable criticism over the way the Merkel government
is implementing these policies. It is accused of allowing itself to be
diverted by internal disputes, rather than getting on with the job. It has,
the charge goes, spent too much time and effort seeking to accommodate
specific lobby groups, while unnecessarily stirring up the population.
The chancellor herself is accused of vacillating between the contending
interests in the government camp instead of firmly laying down the course to
be followed.
For weeks, leading media outlets—such as the financial daily Handelsblatt,
the newsweekly Der Speigel and conservative organs such as the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitug and Die Welt—have accused Merkel of hesitation in taking
unpopular decisions due to party-related tactical considerations.
The Free Democratic Party (FDP)—part of the ruling coalition along with
Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social
Union (CSU)—is also under fire for a reduction in the value-added tax for
hotels, which has discredited the government’s austerity budget. FDP leader
Guido Westerwelle has been accused of taking on too much in his triple role
as foreign minister, vice chancellor and FDP chair.
Criticism of the government's efforts within the ruling elite is linked to
the consideration that it might be advantageous for the Social Democratic
Party (SPD) to once again be included in the government. The last SPD
chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, pushed through the Agenda 2010 welfare and
labour “reforms,” and the grand coalition between the SPD and the CDU that
succeeded Schröder raised the retirement age. Thus, the SPD has demonstrated
its ability to defy public opposition and impose attacks on social conditions.
The media campaign against Merkel reached a climax in Wednesday's
presidential election.
The resignation in May of the previous president, Horst Köhler, was already
a warning to Merkel. Köhler had been unusually open in his calls for the
defence of Germany's economic interests by military means. When this earned
him criticism in the media, he resigned on the grounds that the critics had
damaged the authority of his office—an indirect criticism of the chancellor
for failing to show sufficient support.
After Merkel selected CDU politician Christian Wulff to succeed Köhler, the
SPD and the Greens put forward Joachim Gauck as their alternate nominee for
the presidency. The former East German civil rights activist and head of the
agency investigating the files of the Stasi (the East German security
police), Gauck was promoted as the “candidate of the people” by a broad
media alliance, from the liberal Frankfurter Rundschau and Der Spiegel to the
conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt to the tabloid
Bild-Zeitung.
There is no evidence that Gauck enjoys much support among the population, or
ever has. The“first free election”in the German Democratic Republic (GDR—
East Germany), the Volkskammer election of March 1990, so enthusiastically
recounted by Gauck in his speeches, is not remembered fondly in East Germany.
In this election, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised the people of
East Germany that they would enjoy “flourishing landscapes” in a reunified
Germany. Instead, they were left with scorched earth.
The election and its results gave rise to the slogan “first cheated, then
lied to,”encapsulating for many former GDR citizens their experiences after
the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The“freely elected”Volkskammer lasted only seven months. It was mainly
concerned with its own dissolution, while actual government policy was
directed from Bonn, the capital of West Germany at the time.
Gauck stood as a candidate for Neues Forum (New Forum), which received just
2.9 percent of the votes cast, abruptly shattering the illusion that this
group stood at the head of a popular movement. Gauck subsequently used his
control of the agency investigating the Stasi files to settle old scores.
Gauck's current“popularity”is also bogus. While massive screens were set
up outside the Bundestag (parliament) on Wednesday to show live pictures of
the presidential election, the square was virtually empty.
Gauck's campaign for president was meant to show the government how things
should be done. He was built up by the media as a popular tribune, a
counterweight to the detached political class. In the name of freedom and
responsibility, he campaigned for cuts in welfare and military operations in
Afghanistan.
The unemployed and those on welfare were little impressed, but the Greens
lapped it up. Gauck's campaign penetrated deep into the government coalition.
While the media declared that Merkel should resign in the event of a defeat
for her candidate, Wulff, the government camp increasingly saw the election
as an opportunity to send Merkel a warning. In the first and second ballots,
which required an absolute majority, Wulff failed by 44 and 29 votes,
respectively. These were votes of delegates from the CDU and FDP camp cast in
defiance of Merkel.
Merkel was humiliated. Only in the third and last round, where a plurality
was sufficient, did Wulff receive an absolute majority.
Merkel has received a clear message. She can no longer count on the support
of her own party if she does not ruthlessly pursue the course demanded by
leading financial and business circles. She“cannot escape the legitimate
expectations of powerful governance,”Heribert Prantl, the domestic
political editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote.
President Wulff, who comes from a conservative, Catholic milieu, will stand
at her side and seek to emulate Gauck.
At the same time, with their nomination of the conservative Gauck, the SPD
and Greens have demonstrated that they are ready to rejoin the federal
government at any time and continue Schröder's policies of welfare cuts.
To this end, the Left Party is providing them with political cover. Since its
inception three years ago, this party has shown it is prepared to head off
growing social opposition and divert it into harmless political channels. At
the same time, it advocates a return of the SPD and the Greens to government,
offering every possible support.
In the presidential election, this cooperation entered a new stage. The Left
Party repeatedly called on the SPD and Greens to stand a joint candidate,
even if he or she came from the conservative camp. They even raised the
possibility of a three-party joint candidate, the former environment minister
Klaus Töpfer (CDU).
But that was not sufficient for the SPD and the Greens. By seeking the Left
Party's support for Gauck, an avowed anti-communist, they sought to force
the Left Party into a position of condemning the Stalinist-run former GDR.
That was too much for the Left Party, whose roots go back to the ruling
Stalinist party in the former GDR. Although some its leaders campaigned for
Gauck, official support for him by the party would have been too much for its
members and voters.
The Left Party went only half way. In the third ballot, the Left Party
withdrew its own candidate, Lucretia Jochimsen, but made no recommendation to
vote for Gauck. In the end, a majority of the 124 delegates of the Left Party
abstained.
Nevertheless, the Left Party has taken a further step towards closer
cooperation with the SPD and the Greens. If the SPD and Greens get the
opportunity to continue Schröder's policy of welfare cuts, they can firmly
count on support from the Left Party.
For working people, the events of Wednesday must be a lesson. Faced with the
worst economic crisis in 80 years, the ruling class is moving towards
authoritarian forms of rule.
The call for someone who can“provide a sense of the nation, who tells us
what has to be done”(Josef Joffe in Die Zeit), could be heard throughout
the campaign. Only an independent working class movement—independent of the
SPD, the Left Party and the reformist trade unions—advocating a socialist
programme can stop this danger.
Peter Schwarz
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※ 編輯: swallow73 來自: 114.33.44.46 (07/03 14:44)