Four more German years

This month Germans will go to the polls to elect a new Parliament. For the past four years a coalition Government of social democrats and greens has been in office. It replaced the corrupted conservative Government of Helmut Kohl, who had been Chancellor (prime minister) since 1982. The conservatives are now aiming for a comeback, under an ultra-conservative leader. The ruling coalition under G.Schroeder is under pressure to convince voters that the Government has performed successfully and to demonstrate what has been accomplished and improved. As I have suggested in an earlier Suite101 article (February 1, 2002), election choices in Germany are unreal, almost painful to make. This election is prime example of this dismal political situation. What is different now, is that the outcome of these elections will have far more international significance than previous elections, at least since 1982, if not even since 1969 (when Willy Brandt became Chancellor).

Throughout Europe, rightist Governments have taken office in recent years. Not too long ago, conservatives were on the political sidelines: today Germany is the only larger EU country led by social democrats (with the exception of the UK, where the Labour party today only bears a residual resemblance of anything left-of-centre). Despite the rightward slide of Germany's social democrats and the greens, both parties have yet to fully deteriorate into a middle-of-the road, right-leaning political grouping. From an international perspective, this fact alone is reason enough to favour a continuation of the present coalition. If it can be extended to include the more left wing, mainly eastern-based democratic socialists, that may not be as bad a thing as the mainstream media regularly suggests. Unemployment and eroding social standards are central domestic issues in Germany, still of greater concern in the Eastern "Laender" than in the old West. A new conservative Government would certainly tend to neglect these issues or even disregard them in favor of corporate interests. Economic recovery aligned with sound environmental management, alongside a political agenda of social inclusion is not the conservatives idea of a modern Germany, it never was. It's true that the governing coalition has rarely inspired forward-thinkers or even political gradualists, but Germany's political system today offers no viable broad-based alternative.

As far as the international arena is concerned, a conservative-led Germany in these times of al-Qaieda wars and proliferation of Orwellian state features, can only be regarded as another dim day for democracy. The way things stand today, all major OECD countries with the exception of Germany, are unconditional advocates of continued, unrestrained gloablisation. To be clear, there should be little doubt that Germany is an active proponent of intensified economic globalisation. However, it is by far more concerned about bridging economic disparities and propelling environmentally more benevolent approaches to development than France, Italy, Japan or certainly the USA are. In the wake of a conservative victory in the German elections, that would surely change. Regrettably the European Union Commission continues to set the tone and pace of EU approaches to gloablisation: a near reflection of the predominantly conservative positions amongst most member states.

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