BERLIN: The leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partner SPD said Sunday she was resigning as her party’s chief, raising the possibility that Germany’s embattled government could collapse.
Andrea Nahles, who heads the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), has come under intense pressure after voters handed the party its worst outcome in European elections a week ago.
With an eye on three key state elections in eastern Germany in September, the SPD had initially planned to re-examine its partnership with Merkel’s centre-right CDU-CSU alliance in the autumn.
But ahead of a planned parliamentary leadership vote on Tuesday, Nahles said she would give up her jobs as both party chief and head of its parliamentary group.
“The discussions in the parliamentary group and the broad feedback from the party showed me that the support necessary for the exercise of my offices is no longer there,“ said Nahles in a statement.
The 48-year-old said she hoped her resignation “would open the possibility that the succession can take place in an orderly manner”.
Harald Christ, deputy chief of the SPD’s economy forum, told the Bild daily however that Nahles’s decision had put the future of the coalition in serious doubt.
“To all those who are happy today: it is a great loss for German politics. Nahles stands for the existence of the GroKo — whose stability is now in question,“ he said, using the German short-form for grand coalition.
‘Walking undead’
The alliance between Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the SPD has been fragile from the start.
Stung by an election beating in 2017, the SPD had initially sought to go into opposition.
But it was reluctantly coaxed into renewing a partnership with Merkel, even as many within the party remain wary of continuing to govern in her shadow.
After former EU parliament chief Martin Schulz’s failed attempt at reversing the fortunes of the party, the SPD in April 2018 turned to Nahles, picking her as its first female leader.
With her lectern-thumping speeches, Nahles, the daughter of a bricklayer, had sought to woo back voters who had deserted the party complaining that it was moving too far away from the left.
But a free-fall in the SPD’s ratings could not be halted.
Last Sunday, it suffered a severe drubbing at European elections, with the Greens snatching second place.
It also suffered the humiliation of losing top spot in state elections that same day in its long-time stronghold, the city-state of Bremen.
With the SPD now in disarray, CDU heavyweights came out to urge their centre-left partner not to endanger the coalition.
“The voter mandate is valid for four years and political parties must ensure stability in difficult times. An early end of the GroKo would only benefit the political fringes,“ the CDU’s Bundestag deputy president Hans-Peter Friedrich told Bild daily.
For the far-right AfD, the government was already disintegrating.
“Not only is the SPD dissolving, the GroKo too is walking the political stage only as one of the undead,“ the co-leader of the AfD’s group in parliament, Alice Weidel, told national news agency DPA.
With its anti-immigration campaign, the AfD in 2017 drew voters angry with Merkel’s decision to let in more than a million asylum seekers into Germany.
It is also projected to post significant gains in the three upcoming state elections in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thueringen in the fall.
However, from a national perspective, the Greens may now be the biggest headache for the SPD.
While sharing the centre-left position on the political spectrum with the SPD, the Greens are also proving more attractive to young voters because of their environmental platform.
In a national survey released Saturday, the Greens came in top for the first time — obtaining more support than Merkel’s CDU-CSU alliance. They also had a lead over the SPD of around 15% points. — AFP
