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GERMANY-VOTE-HESSE
Another nail-biter for Merkel as Hessians go to polls
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Oct 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Shifting tectonic plates in
German politics are set to mark a second regional election in as many weeks
Sunday, threatening fresh aftershocks for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s battered
Berlin coalition.
The capital’s government quarter has held its breath since Bavarians
punished Merkel’s allies — the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) and
centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) — in a state poll earlier this month.
Party leaders urged discipline and no heads have rolled ahead of Sunday’s
vote in Hesse, restraining infighting that has driven voters from the
traditional big parties to insurgent political forces.
But a bad outcome for either Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the
SPD or both will uncork a fresh round of finger-pointing and calls to abandon
the veteran chancellor’s third loveless “grand coalition”.
“Everywhere, people are speculating about the end of the coalition and
Angela Merkel’s departure,” news site Spiegel Online commented.
Even so, “so much excitement ahead of the election rather suggests that the
first law of Merkel will yet again apply: nothing happens,” it added.
– Heavy losses –
Polls point to both CDU state premier and loyal Merkel follower Volker
Bouffier and his SPD challenger Thorsten Schaefer-Guembel suffering heavy
losses compared with 2013.
Both parties stand to shed around 10 points, for results in the high 20s
for the CDU and around 20 percent for the SPD.
Depending how other parties perform, the coalition arithmetic could still
allow either to lead a new state government — handing Merkel or SPD leader
Andrea Nahles a symbolic victory.
Electoral momentum is on the side of newer parties, the far-right, anti-
immigrant Alternative for Germany and the left-leaning ecologist Greens.
The AfD has entered 15 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments as well as the
federal Bundestag, propelled by a backlash to Merkel’s migration policy.
The protest party is expected to eat into both the CDU and SPD’s vote to
enter the Hessian legislature with a low double-digit share.
Meanwhile, the Greens — already the junior government partner in Hesse —
look poised to almost double their 2013 vote share to around 20 percent,
topping the 17.5 percent they scored in conservative Bavaria.
The party attracts voters who favour welcoming refugees, worry about
climate change or are fed up with the big parties’ indulgence towards the car
companies during a years-long scandal over harmful emissions from diesel
vehicles.
Hessian Greens leader Tarek al-Wazir predicted his party would also benefit
from disappointment over quarrels that have rocked Merkel’s coalition in
recent months, mostly over the AfD’s core issue of immigration.
While the CDU/CSU have been “wrapped up in themselves,” al-Wazir said, “we
have never allowed ourselves to be driven crazy by the AfD’s attacks”.
– Crumble, not collapse –
With tensions high in the Berlin coalition, “no-one can say with 100
percent certainty how stable things will stay, what kind of dynamics will
emerge in the individual parties” after the election, CDU general secretary
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Thursday.
Kramp-Karrenbauer — seen by many as Merkel’s anointed successor — also
cautioned that “if the government falls apart now, it will result in new
elections,” in a barely concealed warning to would-be coalition breakers in
both the CDU and SPD.
As polls stand, the two parties would each book an even worse result than
the all-time low scores they saw in last year’s federal parliament vote.
Short of an end to the coalition, internal frustration in the CDU could
bubble up in a weak score for Merkel when she stands for re-election as party
leader in December — or even a surprise victory for a challenger.
But Kramp-Karrenbauer and other leadership hopefuls know that “a swift
change right now would come too early”, conservative daily Die Welt commented
— motivating them to play for time and keep Merkel in place while they build
up their own profiles outside the chancellor’s shadow.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0902 hrS