Mein Gott! German President Dissolves Parliament, Calls for New Elections

There’s an old, pre-Great War saying about Germany that states, “The German is either at your feet or at your throat.” Now, Germany has changed a lot since British and French Army officers were tossing that bit of doggerel around; Germany has changed dramatically even in the relatively few years since my uncle parachuted into the Netherlands in 1944 as part of Operation Market Garden.

Germany is a friendlier place these days. I’ve spent a fair amount of time there and am very fond of Bavaria in particular; I’ve always enjoyed the food, the friendly Bavarian volk, and, of course, the beer. But Germany is undergoing some troubled times, and most recently, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has lost a vote of no-confidence in the Bundestag—the German Parliament.

On Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost the no-confidence vote he had called in the Bundestag, paving the way for early elections in Europe’s largest economy in 2025. That may end up being a good thing for Germany and its role in Europe and the transatlantic partnership.

The move followed weeks of political haggling in the aftermath of Scholz’s three-way coalition collapsing on November 6, itself the result of more than a year of dysfunction, political warfare, and personal animosity among the coalition partners.

On Friday, Germany’s President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, ordered the Bundestag dissolved and called for new elections, to be held on February 23rd.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday ordered parliament dissolved and set new elections for Feb. 23 in the wake of the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, saying it was the only way to give the country a stable government capable of tackling its problems.

Those problems are considerable: economic stagnation, inflation, and unchecked immigration from Third World nations.

Sound familiar? The lines are already being drawn, and Germany’s populist Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, or AfD) party appears to be surging. But there’s a problem: The Bundestag, being a parliamentary system, relies on several parties forming coalitions.

The campaign is already well underway. Polls show Scholz’s party trailing the conservative opposition Union bloc led by Friedrich Merz. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the environmentalist Greens, the remaining partner in Scholz’s government, is also bidding for the top job — though his party is further back. If recent polls hold up, the likely next government would be led by Merz as chancellor in coalition with at least one other party. 

Key issues include immigration, how to get the sluggish economy going, and how best to aid Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.

The populist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which is polling strongly, has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor but has no chance of taking the job because other parties refuse to work with it.

AfD has, among other policy positions, called for an end to unchecked Third World immigration into Germany, and given recent events, that’s a viewpoint that is increasingly gaining steam in the Vaterland.

See Related: SHOCKER: Lovely German Christmas Markets Overrun by Foreign Invaders

BREAKING: Horror at a German Christmas Market As Car Plows Into Crowd at High Rate of Speed (Updated)

Could the AfD win an outright majority? That is what it would take for them to take control if none of the other parties are willing to work with them. Our two-party system tends to form coalitions before elections. The Republicans, in the Age of Trump, are a coalition of economic populists, small and medium-sized business owners, entrepreneurs, blue-collar union workers, and the social-issues conservatives, whereas the Democrats have cobbled together a coalition of the dependency class, academics, university students and coastal elites. In most parliamentary systems, each group (more or less) has a party, and coalitions form after elections.

If the AfD cannot pull an outright majority, and if none of the other parties are willing to work with it, some other kind of coalition will form, and the new government will be able to freeze the AfD out. Will there be a preference cascade towards the AfD?

Germany has problems. Immigration is one of those problems; specifically, unchecked Third World immigration, which has led directly to invasions of traditional German Christmas markets and even attacks on those markets. The AfD is the loudest voice in Germany for changing Germany’s current open immigration policy. Germans are concerned, and rightly so. 

This will be a roundly interesting election to watch, and the implications may go well beyond Germany.

This post was originally published on this site