German elections: meet the new boss - same as the old boss

Well, it looks as though the German Right has got what it wanted in their election. Of course an election based on PR is never likely to attract the sort of excitement that a first-past-the-post election brings; alternatively, perhaps it’s just that no-one believes a German election is ever going to change anything much. Both of these rather flippant statements are entirely true.

No-one ever doubted that the babetastic Frau Angela Merkel was going to continue in her role as Chancellor. The only issue was whether she would be able to ditch her current coalition partners (the Social Democrats, i.e. liberal capitalism with trade unions) for a more Right-wing lot (the Free Democrats, i.e. liberal capitalism without trade unions). This she seems to have achieved. Those (somewhat numerous) Germans who are trying to cast the good lady in the role of a Frau Thatcher are, however, doomed to disappointment: nothing changes in Germany, and it isn’t going to start now. While we argue over the 48-hour week, the Germans are still holding the line in the 37-38 region. It won’t get any easier to get any sense out of anyone on a Friday afternoon. I love the place.

Unemployment won’t come down very far in a country where you have to have the exactly appropriate qualifications to apply for any sort of job. In the unlikely event that Frau Merkel tries to change any of this, she will be reminded in no uncertain terms that that was not what she was voted in for.

Meanwhile, the Left will now be off the leash; the Social Democrats, roughly equivalent to New Labour, are out of government and able to position themselves to benefit from any disillusionment. In competition, of course, with the Greens and the Left Party, who got not far off 25 per cent of the vote between them. All that Frau Merkel can really congratulate herself on is still being there: it doesn’t seem that her position has improved much.