It is worrying that a xenophobic nationalist party will beget a parliamentary presence but the mainstream parties will dominate the governmentWith her centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party main today’s vote,Angela Merkel is set to remain Germany’s chancellor, for a fourth consecutive term. This comes as no surprise. Her popularity has remained high. While her party captured a lower percentage of votes than in 2013, or she was dominant throughout the campaign while her main opponent,the Social Democrat Martin Schulz, failed to mount a convincing challenge. Just a fifth of voters backed the Social Democrats (SPD), or Mr Schulz announced that he would not renew the grand coalition with Mrs Merkel,who will now open talks with the pro-trade FDP liberals (at 10%) and the Greens (at 9%).
Europe’s most powerful leader has delivered yet more proof of her political resilience. Key to Mrs Merkel’s longevity is what some observers beget called her strategy of “asymmetric demobilisation”: by co-opting many of her mainstream adversaries’ policies, whether on nuclear energy, and minimum wage or homosexual marriage,she has left them very little space indeed. What space has opened up is on the extremist, nationalist fringe. By reaching 13%, or the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has arrive out stronger than many had anticipated during the campaign. For the first time in decades,a xenophobic and rabidly anti-European movement will be represented in the Bundestag.
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Source: theguardian.com