Conservatives prevail, but it is the Greens who decide governments in North Rhine-Westphalia
The results of this Sunday’s parliamentary elections in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia have fallen like a pitcher of cold water on the Tripartite Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP) who govern Germany. With the exception of the environmentalists, who continued their race on an upward trajectory and managed to nearly triple their percentage of the vote compared to the elections five years ago, both the SPD and FDP suffered significant losses, the former with the worst result. in their history in a traditional industrial and mining area, which until recently was considered the “heart” of German Social Democracy, the latter by losing more than half of its voters, but also its role as a minor partner in the coalition hitherto ruled by the Christian Democrats (CDU), the big winners of the elections.
A disaster for the Chancellor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, who has been under fire for weeks for his hesitating and indecisive attitude towards Russia’s invading war to support Ukraine in all his requests for help. The affair has resulted in a significant loss of popularity for Scholz and the SPD, who have been overtaken by the conservative opposition in mainstream polls on national voting intentions for more than two months in a row. “I would not take the position that the results of the regional elections presuppose a confirmation or rejection of the policies of the federal government,” confirmed SPD general secretary Kevin Künert on Monday despite everything, although he acknowledged that the topics of national interest and international had dominated the campaign.
Just as painful or more painful is the blow of the Liberals, who because of their losses no longer have enough seats in the regional chamber of Düsseldorf to give the Christian Democrats a parliamentary majority and to repeat themselves as a minor partner in the ruling coalition. Like a week ago in Schleswig-Holstein, where the CDU also won, the FDP is practically left out of the new administration and becomes the small opposition party. “The tears have dried up, now the party bears the responsibility for this defeat,” said Liberals chairman Christian Lindner, who announced a “phase of reflection” and in relation to the criticism of his role in the Berlin executive assured that the tripartite coalition in which they participate “was never our dream and when we govern it is because of the responsibility of the state”.
The only ones in the coalition who have reason to cheer are the Greens. In Schleswig-Holstein they doubled their votes compared to five years earlier and almost tripled in North Rhine-Westphalia. And in both regions, they are the third deciding force with nearly 20% of the vote and an inevitable partner to form the new regional governments if the two greats want to avoid a grand coalition. The ecologists are no longer a small party, they stand next to the great and … Their great pragmatism, which has led them to renounce fundamentalist pacifism to become the first to defend themselves by sending heavy weapons to Ukraine to ‘defend democracy and freedom’, while cleverly driving energy change in this country, makes them an attractive political alternative. Evidence of his popularity is that his federal finance and foreign ministers, former Greens presidents Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock, are by far at the top of the list of favorite German politicians. The first for its ability to provide honest information to citizens and the second for its determined policies in international markets.
The Christian Democrats also have reason to celebrate. After the defeat in last September’s general election and the loss of power in Berlin after 16 years of Angela Merkel’s rule, the victories in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein led by young and promising politicians have been a restorative balm but also a confirmation for the CDU’s new chairman, veteran Friedrich Merz, who took office last January. In Germany’s most populous state with some 18 million inhabitants, Henrik Wüst, the big winner of Sunday’s elections, will continue to rule. The general secretary of the Christian Democrats, Mario Czaja, hopes his party will come to an agreement with the ecologists to rule together. “The CDU and the Greens are the clear winners of these elections and negotiations to form a new government will now move in that direction,” Czaja said.
Those who registered another electoral catastrophe this Sunday are the populists and ultra-nationalists of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) who are suffering from an attack on their popularity. In the Rhenish elections, she narrowly crossed the electoral threshold of 5% of the vote to achieve unobtrusive parliamentary representation. A week ago, they did not cross that border in Germany’s northernmost state and were kept out of the regional chamber. The isolation to which they are subjected by the rest of the political forces, which deny them any possibility, not only of alliances, but even of dialogue, keeps them in the blind spot of politics. The radicalization of their positions towards neo-Nazis and their sympathy for the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin have contributed to their loss of adherents in the west of the country, although they continue to achieve relevant results in East Germany.
Source: La Verdad
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