Thursday, March 30, 2017

Future Coalition Talk in Germany

From yesterday, if you follow German political news.....a six-hour meeting occurred with the CDU and SPD folks.

Topic?  The potential coalition, after September's election.

Previously, the SPD had hyped up to a major extent that they would win, and they would not form a coalition with the CDU.  Instead, they would only partner with the Greens and Linke Party.

Well....for several weeks, everyone was hyped up over Martin Schulz being the new candidate of the SPD, and those wonderful coalition would be coming in September.

Over the weekend in Saarland, the SPD lost by a fair margin, and polling says that SPD-likely voters are NOT happy over the Green and Linke Party partnership deal.  To the point....they'd vote CDU to avoid this partnership.

Yeah, shocker.

Results out of this six-hour meeting?  Nothing.

Both parties laid down their big topics, and simply nodded.  No agreement.

For Schulz, it's a big dose of reality.

Schulz will have to give a couple of speeches to indicate that they could partner with the CDU....angering elements of the left who'd like this dream-team of SPD, Linke Party and Greens.  At some point, journalists will want more of a promise to come out, and I have doubts that Schulz really wants to make a promise like that.

A win by the CDU?  This creates an interesting game that might develop.  If Merkel could pull a 41-percent win, and the Greens got 9-percent....then they might try to develop a CDU-Green coalition (like you see in Hessen today in the state government).  It works although some Greens are a bit angry over the established relationship.

If Merkel wins with only 35-percent?  She'd have no choice but to partner up with the SPD, and Schulz would end up as vice-chancellor or some cabinet job.

So, settle back and enjoy the theatrics at work.

No comments: