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Germany’s fractious government
Angela Merkel’s wobbly restart
BERLIN
Coalition squabbles and a row over Afghanistan have made the beginning of
Angela Merkel’s second term as chancellor shaky
EVEN its supporters cannot claim that
Germany’s centre-right government
has got o to an impressive start. Since the
coalition of Angela Merkel’s Christian
Democrats (CDU) with Guido Westerwelle’s
Free Democrats (FDP) took oce in
late October, a row over Afghanistan has
toppled one minister and engulfed a second;
the government has enacted tax cuts
nobody seems to want; and it has feuded
bitterly over a minor appointment to a museum.
Ms Merkel, the supposed climate
chancellor, failed to rescue the planet in
Copenhagen (see page 43). Her Christmas
holiday, mostly spent cross-country skiing,
must have come as a relief.
Ms Merkel’s main legislative achievement
is a growth acceleration law that
has drawn ridicule from economists and
split the CDU but left voters cold. The economists
expect little acceleration from 8.5
billion ($12 billion) of tax cuts that include
relief for families, much of which will be
saved, plus a cut in value-added tax for hotel
stays. Without spending reductions or
other revenue rises, such cuts are unserious,
complained the ocial committee of
economic wise men. Only a fth of voters
want them, says Forsa, a pollster. CDU premiers
from cash-strapped states hate giveaways
that eat into their own revenues.
The government’s shaky start suggests
that the black-yellow coalition (consisting
formally of the CDU and its Bavarian
sister party, the Christian Social Union,
along with the FDP) was never the dream
team that Ms Merkel claimed ahead of
September’s federal election. The FDP
spent 11 years in opposition agitating for
tax cuts and could not relent once in power.
It also had the support of the CSU. But
these two smaller parties have been at loggerheads
over a new museum for refugees.
The CSU wants a seat on the advisory
board to go to a controversial leader of ethnic
Germans expelled after the war by Poland
and Czechoslovakia, because their
descendants are a key voting group in Bavaria.
But Mr Westerwelle, who as foreign
minister has made much of good relations
with Poland, says no.
In many ways, some in the CDU are
muttering, life was easier in the grand coalition
with the Social Democratic Party
(SPD) that ruled with a big majority until
October. The CDU and SPD may be ideological
and political foes, but both are
broad-based people’s parties that understand
the responsibilities of oce. The FDP
needs to grow up, some grumble.
Afghan angst
Ms Merkel got her tax cuts through both
houses mainly by promising extra aid to
the states. Her troubles over Afghanistan
will not be so easy to settle. They began in
September with a NATO airstrike called by
a German colonel against a group of Taliban
who had hijacked two fuel trucks in
Kunduz. Franz Josef Jung, then defence
The Economist January 2nd 2010 37
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minister, initially denied that any civilians
were killed. He was forced to resign as labour
minister in November when it became
clear that the defence ministry knew
early on that many of the 142 casualties
were civilian. The new defence minister,
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, then sacked
the most senior general, Wolfgang Schneiderhan,
and a top bureaucrat for failing to
inform him fully. But General Schneiderhan
has, in eect, called Mr zu Guttenberg
a liar. A parliamentary committee plans to
summon all those concerned, probably including
Ms Merkel.
This adds up to an ugly blemish on a
promising debut. Young, charismatic and
with a reputation for straight talk, Mr zu
Guttenberg had bonded well with the
troops and told voters bluntly that they
faced warlike conditions in Afghanistan,
which counts as daring candour in a country
that still sees itself as exempt from warfare.
The Kunduz ap will make it harder
for Germany to back NATO’s surge in Afghanistan
with more troops. Mr zu Guttenberg
has not ruled this out, though he has
lately sounded less bellicose by calling for
negotiations with moderate Taliban leaders
and talking of a date for withdrawal.
He may yet bounce back. Many soldiers
think General Schneiderhan went too far
in questioning the minister’s honesty; and
they like the new army chief. In the long
run, argues Jan Techau of the German
Council on Foreign Relations, the Kunduz
aair may even help the country to come
to terms with its military obligations. The
politicians have allowed an escalation of
Germany’s military role abroad but done
their best to disguise it. If Mr zu Guttenberg
survives, the Kunduz incident will pave
the way for a new kind of language,
hopes Mr Techau.
Ms Merkel could use a fresh start herself.
She wants to shift from the economic- 1