Stephen Lendman

(Surveillance Chancellor...)

On September 23, Der Spiegel headlined "Word From Berlin: Triumph Confirms 'Era of Merkelism."

She "won a stunning victory. Conservatives (achieved) the best result in two decades. Merkel is at the zenith of her power."

Financial Times contributor Wolfgang Munchau headlined "Merkel's almost total political triumph," saying:

"Just a few votes shy of an absolute majority was the best conceivable result Angela Merkel could have had. It was an electoral triumph of the kind that are extremely rare in German politics. She has achieved all her electoral goals. She will stay in power - of that there was really never any doubt. But she also secured her other goal - to make it impossible for the three parties of the left to form a coalition against her during the next parliamentary term."

Germany's so called left is as pro-business/anti-populist as right of center parties. Munchau didn't explain.

"The CDU will always have a choice of coalition partners," (he said.) "While (he) disagree(s) with almost all her economic policies, (he) cannot hide (his) admiration for her political ruthlessness."

German newspaper Die Tageszeitung calls her "the worst chancellor in the country's post-war history." She's that and then some. Retaining her "is bad news for Europe." According to Berliner Zeitung, major domestic issues have been neglected. "Things can't stay as they are for another four years." Expect worse ahead, not better.

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Ulrich Rippert

The German elections last Sunday had many special features. The Free Democratic Party (FDP), which has consistently sat in the Bundestag (parliament), has been involved in government since 1949, longer than any other party, and which most blatantly represents the interests of finance capital, failed to clear the five percent hurdle required to enter parliament.

The new anti-euro party “Alternative for Germany” (AFD), founded just a few months ago, secured almost as many votes as the FDP and narrowly missed a place in the Bundestag.

But most striking was the victory of Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The party whose brutal austerity measures have triggered violent protests and mass demonstrations in many European countries, was able, together with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), to get nearly forty-eight percent of the vote.

In contrast, the parties which acted as a supposedly left-wing opposition were punished by the voters. The Greens and the Left Party lost significantly, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) received 25.7 percent of the vote, which despite a minimal gain was its second-worst election result of the Postwar period. The reason is not hard to understand: the SPD, Greens and Left Party are neither left-wing nor an opposition.

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