The Governmental Crisis in Germany and the Future of Angela Merkel

Klaus Larres

University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill

Klaus Larres is a DAAD/AICGS Research Fellow from February through April 2022. He is the Richard M Krasno Distinguished Professor of History and International Affairs at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. He served as a Counselor and Senior Policy Adviser at the German Embassy in Beijing, China. Larres is the former holder of the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and a Member/Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, NJ. He also was the Clifford Hackett Visiting Professor of European History at Yale and a Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, where he focused on German-Chinese relations. He was a Visiting Professor at Schwartzman College/Tsinghua University in Beijing, Tongji University in Shanghai, the Beijing Language and Culture University, as well as at Johns Hopkins University SAIS and the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. He has held full-time professorial positions at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of London. He is also a non-residential Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai, India.

Larres has published widely on transatlantic relations, the Cold War, and U.S.-China-Europe relations in the 20th and 21st centuries. His latest books are entitled Uncertain Allies: Nixon, Kissinger and the Threat of a United Europe (Yale UP, 2022); Dictators and Autocrats: Securing Power Across Global Politics, ed. (Routledge, 2022); Terrorism and Transatlantic Relations: Threats and Challenges, co-ed. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022); Understanding Global Politics: Actors and Themes in International Affairs, co-ed. (Routledge, 2020), German-American Relations in the 21st Century: A Fragile Friendship, ed. (Routledge, 2019); and many other books, including Churchill’s Cold War: The Politics of Personal Diplomacy (Yale UP, 2002), as well as many articles on U.S.-China-Germany/EU relations. He runs the Krasno Global Affairs & Business Council/Krasno Global Events Series at UNC and frequently contributes to the international media.

His DAAD/AICGS research project, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do: China as a Cause of German-American Tension in Transatlantic Relations,” will compare and analyze the different approaches the United States and Germany have taken in their relations with China since the early 2000s. The study explores why at times this has led to intense transatlantic disagreements and investigates whether or not different perceptions of the value of economic and political relations with China as well as historical experiences have been influential in both countries’ divergent views and strategies toward China. The study then explores how the fissure in German-American and transatlantic relations regarding China can be overcome.

Until late on November 19, 2017, Germany was one of the few large countries in Europe not afflicted by a major crisis. This perception of Germany as a pillar of stability in an uncertain and unpredictable world changed suddenly when the negotiations for forming a new government collapsed. Since 2005, Chancellor Angela Merkel has been in charge of relatively well-functioning stable governments and a healthy economy. After Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president some analysts even went so far as to declare her “the leader of the western world.”

But is this the beginning of the end of the Merkel era? Will there be new elections soon or will the Berlin Republic be governed by an unprecedented minority government? Have the major parties been discredited with the extreme right-wing party Alliance for Germany (AfD) being the “laughing third”?

The Situation

The German general elections on September 24, 2017, produced a number of unexpected results. The two major parties—Merkel’s CDU/CSU and the slightly left-of-center SPD—suffered significant losses. Despite a combined loss of more than 8 percent, Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian conservative sister party, CSU, still remained the largest party in the Bundestag, with 33 percent in total. The small neo-liberal FDP managed an impressive return to the national parliament after an absence of four years. Other smaller parties, such as the Greens and the Left Party, also gained some seats.

However, much to the consternation of many in Germany and the wider world, a party on the extreme right of the political spectrum won seats in the Bundestag for the first time since 1949. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was only founded in 2013, took a massive 12.6 percent of the vote and 94 seats in parliament, making it the country’s third largest party.

The SPD soon declared that in view of its massive defeat, it was not ready to participate in the new government and would go into opposition. After all, the party took only 20.5 percent of the vote, down from 25.7 percent in the last election.  The SPD and its leader, Martin Schulz, the former president of the European Parliament, were no longer interested in continuing the Grand Coalition with Merkel’s party. Numerically it would have been possible. But it was clear that being a junior partner to Merkel for the previous four years and before had undermined the SPD’s electoral credibility. The same had happened to the FDP; the party was in government with Merkel from 2009-2013 and lost the following elections.

With no party prepared to enter into government with the AfD or the Left Party (the former East German communists), this left four parties that could form a coalition government. The colors these parties have adopted as symbols resemble the national flag of Jamaica, leading to talk of a “Jamaica coalition.” This was meant to consist of Angela Merkel’s CDU and its sister party CSU, the neoliberal FDP, and the Greens. Negotiations to overcome their substantive divisions and talks about forming a governing coalition in Berlin were conducted for four long weeks. As set out by law, the new parliament elected in September convened on October 24. Until a new government has been formed, the old government remains in office in an acting capacity, with Merkel as chancellor and Sigmar Gabriel as foreign minister.

The four parties that commenced negotiations to form a “Jamaica coalition government” were divided by many issues. Among them were taxes and the abolition of the “solidarity tax” to finance support for eastern Germany, the imposition of an upper ceiling for accepting refugees, and the question of whether family members of re-settled refugees are entitled to join them in Germany. There were also a number of controversial questions regarding “big data,” the environment, climate, and energy that needed to be agreed upon.

By the evening of November 19, a compromise deal seemed to have been achieved. But then all of a sudden, the FDP with its inexperienced and somewhat self-important leader Christian Lindner pulled out. He declared that there were disagreements on substantive issues, in particular with the Green Party, that could not be bridged. It is better “not to govern at all, then to govern badly,” Lindner announced shortly before midnight.

His prospective partners were stunned, as was the German nation and most of the rest of the world, which had become used to stability and common sense prevailing in Berlin. Overnight, Germany had been plunged into a deep constitutional crisis.

Many commentators blamed the young FDP leader, saying that his responsibility to help create a workable government appeared to have taken a backseat to his party political ambitions. He apparently expects that new elections will provide his party with more seats in parliament and thus the ability to form a coalition with the CDU/CSU and without the Greens.

What are the options?

1. The SPD could enter another Grand Coalition with Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU after all. The SPD could argue that they have changed their mind out of responsibility to the nation. In negotiations with Merkel, the SPD could even limit the new Grand Coalition to two years, for instance, and insist on early general elections after this time. The SPD might find it easier to enter into a new Grand Coalition with the CDU/CSU if Angela Merkel were to retire as chancellor and be replaced as party leader. At present, however, this is an unlikely prospect.
2. Merkel could form a minority government with or without the Greens. This, however, makes for a weak and unstable government with changing majorities. It also has no precedent in German history since 1949. At present, there is great reluctance from most involved to go down this path. For every bill and major initiative, Merkel would be dependent on the opposition parties to provide her with a parliamentary majority. She has expressed skepticism about this course of action.
3. New elections could be called. This, though, is not easy. The German parliament has no right to dissolve itself. Only the German president can do so, and only after a prolonged process. This was made deliberately difficult in the Basic Law, the country’s constitution, as a lesson from the failed Weimar Republic of the 1920s and early 1930s. At that time parliament could be dissolved much too easily, leading to much instability and, ultimately, the appointment of Hitler as chancellor.

The Role of the German President

The initiative to call new elections rests with the German federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a former SPD foreign minister. He must propose the leader of the strongest party in parliament (currently Merkel) for election as chancellor by the federal parliament. And parliament has to elect the chancellor with an absolute majority. If this fails the first time, as it would at present, parliament must try to elect the chancellor again within two weeks. Any candidate who obtains an absolute parliamentary majority becomes German chancellor.

If this fails, however, it is only in the third round of voting that the chancellor can be elected with a simple rather than an absolute majority. At this point the role of the president becomes decisive. After discussion with all parliamentary parties, Steinmeier can decide whether to appoint as chancellor the party leader who has obtained a relative parliamentary majority or to dissolve parliament. If he decides to dissolve parliament, new parliamentary elections must be held within 60 days. Were this scenario to become reality now, new elections might be held toward the end of February at the earliest and possibly only in March/April 2018, depending on when parliament could be dissolved.

Until then, the current government and Chancellor Merkel will stay in office in an acting capacity. Germany will continue to have a functioning government, though an acting government is unlikely to embark on any major reform initiatives. At first, following the collapse of the “Jamaica talks,” the majority of parties seemed to prefer holding new elections. Acting Chancellor Merkel, the SPD, and the FDP were in favor of this course of action.  The right-wing AfD also preferred new elections, expecting to obtain an even greater share of the votes than in September.

It was doubtful, however, that the major traditional parties who have led the nation to this impasse would benefit from new elections. In fact, the FDP and the SPD might be penalized by the voters: the FDP for having brought the collapse of the negotiations about and the SPD for having refused to resolve it by forming another grand coalition. But Merkel and her party might also suffer from new elections. Grassroots resentment against her government is on the rise.

Latest opinion polls indicate, however, that if new elections were held all parties would roughly obtain the same share of the vote as in September. The FDP might actually increase its share a little while the AfD would see no significant gains. Yet, by early December Germany’s major parties had lost interest in new elections; instead, they decided to explore the possibility of forming another grand coalition, the third one since 2005.

The Future of Angela Merkel

Merkel’s own future is quite unclear. As the undisputed national leader of the CDU, there is no competition to her leadership in her own party. The crisis may have undermined her authority somewhat; some blame her for the collapse of the negotiations. On the other hand, she is perceived by many as having done her best to bring about a Jamaica coalition. In the meantime, she has also expressed her readiness to enter into coalition negotiations with the SPD to form a new grand coalition.

If there were a minority government, Angela Merkel would be the chancellor of such a government. If there were new elections to be held early in 2018, Merkel would be the CDU/CSU’s candidate for chancellor. If there were a new grand coalition with the SPD, Merkel may or may not be able to continue as chancellor. The outcome of any new general election, however, is entirely unpredictable. If her party suffered a further massive loss of votes, she may have to retire (despite the lack of an obvious successor waiting in the wings).

President Steinmeier is reluctant to hold new elections, however, wishing instead to convene talks with all the Jamaica parties and the SPD. He declared that with the elections of September 2017, “the parties have been given a responsibility to the nation which cannot simply be returned to the voters.” He may have a point. And indeed, Steinmeier succeeded in persuading the SPD to entertain the notion of entering government after all. Talks between the SPD and the CDU about considering a new grand coalition began in late November.

Given Germany’s international importance, this crisis has global repercussions. In view of the difficult situation within the EU and a world largely rudderless and in uproar, Germany has responsibility for providing an element of stability to European and global politics. Forming a new grand coalition, even one limited to two years, might be the right way forward. The talks between the CDU/CSU and the SPD, and perhaps also talks with the Greens, ought to be speeded up. Germany, Europe, and the world need to have an elected and stable government in office in Berlin. A new grand coalition would be a sensible way forward. It is more than likely that once again the new government will be headed by Angela Merkel.