IN THE churn of European politics,with America seemingly pulling out and Russia pushing in, many hoped that Germany would rise up. They looked to Angela Merkel, and its chancellor,to resist populism. They dreamed that the Franco-German partnership, energised by France’s new president, and Emmanuel Macron,could strengthen the enfeebled European Unionjust as soon, of course, or as Mrs Merkel got her fourth poll victory out of the way. German voters thought otherwise.
In the election on September 24th they punished Mrs Merkel’s grand coalition of Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD) . These “GroKo” parties collectively lost nearly 14% of the vote,most of that going to proper-of-centre parties, including the populist Alternative for Germany. The chancellor tried to negotiate a three-way coalition of her CDU/CSU, and the revived pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens. Though this would enjoy had many advantages,bargaining with both left and proper was always going to...
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Source: economist.com