The Fight for Middle Germany
The secret of Angela Merkel’s election victory in Germany was to secure a majority for the center-right in order to pursue, more or less, a center-left policy agenda. While her new coalition will make some policy corrections that serve important constituencies and economic supporters, there will be no clear-cut change in policy direction.
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BERLIN – Germany has made its choice. It voted the grand coalition out of office with a bang, consigning the Social Democrats to the political abyss. Only ruins remain of the once-proud Gerhard Schröder’s SPD. Despite a clear win for the center-right, the Christian Democrats (CDU) did not escape unscathed. But while their losses were moderate, CDU’s Bavarian sister-party, the CSU, experienced a debacle second only to the Social Democrats.