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It is striking that although the German Democratic Republic only existed for 41 years and almost 36 years have passed since the fall of the Wall, the political map almost exactly reflects the former internal border of divided Germany. It should be noted, moreover, that the AfD vote in the West also comes overwhelmingly from citizens from the East who have moved to live there. This situation poses a political problem: the new government is likely to be a coalition between the CDU\/CSU and the SPD, an alliance that, despite accounting for almost half of the vote in western Germany, has only obtained 30 per cent in the east. There is thus a risk that in the eastern regions this will lead to a growing sense that the federal government is out of touch with their interests and has limited legitimacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The election result is also interesting insofar as it reveals the new divisions that are emerging throughout Western democracies. In last Sunday’s elections, the left-wing parties gained a 30-point lead among young women (a third of whom voted for Die Linke), but barely won among young men (who voted more for the AfD than the general population). Here, too, a problem arises insofar as if young people vote against mainstream parties this means that the new incoming government – consisting only of traditional parties – may be seen as not only too Western, but also disproportionately representative of older age groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the new phase that is now opening, Friedrich Merz’s leadership is likely to mark a major break with both outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz and former CDU leader Angela Merkel. In the defence sphere, Merz advocates that Europe should prepare to take over its security without the US, will seek nuclear security agreements with the UK and France, and plans to expand Germany’s defence industry. On energy policy, he is likely to take a more pro-nuclear stance, as he will prioritise economic growth over climate policies, favouring deregulation and pro-industry policies. Also to fight the economic recession, he will seek to stimulate trade with other EU countries in order to reduce dependence on China, while aligning himself with more conservative positions on agriculture. On finance, Merz is a strong advocate of the debt brake policy (schwarze null<\/em>) that has been implemented over the past twenty years at the cost of a lack of investment in infrastructure construction and roads, with investment needs in energy, rail and road infrastructure and the education sector alone amounting to 455 billion euros. Finally, in new technologies and cybersecurity, the new chancellor will seek to intensify the digital transition, impose restrictions on Chinese technology and reform data protection legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem, however, is that the CDU is proposing mainstream economic solutions based on the same recipes that have led to the situation the country is in today. The conservatives – like the AfD – continue to pursue a very liberal economic policy in favour of business and capital, prioritising their interests over those of the population and the environment. Thus, economic growth, migration and defence will be the main policy thrusts of the future coalition government, while the fight against social inequality will be irrelevant and the causes of the AfD’s rise will not be addressed through appropriate policies, which will continue to favour its growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, the election results reflect a growing problem in liberal democracies that transcends the German case: increasingly numerous groups of voters separated by fault lines ranging from historical trends to gender, habitat, cultural and social divides have little interaction and little interest in listening to the arguments of other groups. In this sense, social networks facilitate this kind of situation: it is very easy to find on almost any platform a group of people who agree with our postulates, thus creating the impression that our vision of the world is the \u2018right\u2019 one. In the end, this hinders the exchange of ideas and democratic debate, because if we do not even agree on the fundamentals, it is impossible to build a house where we can live together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photography: Bundestag building. J\u00f6rg Braukmann. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alba Giol and Maria Fari\u00f1a, trainees at the CETC, have participated in this issue of Idees d’actualitat<\/em>.<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Germany has held a key election marked by a major economic crisis and the rise of the far right. After decades of industrial hegemony and austerity, the German economy went into recession in 2023, because of the loss of Russian gas and Chinese competition, now aggravated by the imposition of tariffs on its industry by the US. The country has also fallen behind in major 21st century innovations, such as digitalisation and the electric car, due to heavy reliance on its traditional export model. The conservative CDU\/CSU alliance won the poll with a relatively low 28.5 per cent; the far-right\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":79784,"template":"","category_newspaper":[634],"segment":[],"subject":[],"class_list":["post-80287","newspaper","type-newspaper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category_newspaper-634"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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