Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Green liberals, the challenge Merkel

Berlin .- Germany's farewell to nuclear power remains the central figure. Involves much more than the results of Sunday's elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland Palatinate. Who supports nuclear, or extends the life of the plants, lost elections and political life shortens. Merkel has understood.

The question is what will draw consequences. In 2005, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder lost the chancellery after losing the SPD regional stronghold of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is doubtful whether Merkel repeat history. Wear is not as deep and its weight rivals in the party are gone this year.

In addition, erosion is old and usually affects both the CDU and the SPD. Governing coalition has become inevitable for all of Merkel and the challenge is there. Within this general erosion, his party remains better than the SPD and remains the first in Germany, but is burdened by the free fall of their liberal partners, the FDP.

State the challenge is to change the green. The Greens will not become certainly a "Volkspartei" with anchors in society, but are hinged on the rise. The Baden-Württemberg has nothing to do with social change. The new green president of the region, Winfried Kretschmann, has favored the neo-liberal economic agenda is of those who welcomed the coalition with the CDU.

This is not to be tested now, but was actually in Hamburg and makes great sense. The large background process in Germany is the social unrest of the neoliberal transformation "Modell Deutschland", understood as a social market economy based on consensus and social moderation. While still far more "social" that some of the neighboring countries, the Germany of today is very different from 20 years ago, when the communist bogey things even tempered.

In the last fifteen years, this transformation has been charged in the CDU bill and even more in the SPD, which violated the neoliberal reform its social base and union workers. Now with the crisis, this process is wiping out the liberal FDP. The Greens were also responsible for the change, but middle-class voters not charged, and are the only ones who benefit from the erosion of others.

In its ascent is more profit for the problems of others than their own merits. Germany is a moderate country and a little rebellious, but their society is angry. Payable on all others. The Germans have paid a lot, to save their banks. Merkel and Bild have been presented as the Europeans responsible spenders, fog covering the subject of banks, but, despite the trick, the anger is still there.

With its pro-nuclear policy, Merkel stepped in September callus irritated a majority. Half a million took to the streets since then, in the largest anti-nuclear demonstrations in the country's history. As antinuclear more than it seems: a broader social anger is now whisper. To minimize this risk, Merkel's alliance with the Greens would be the solution.

For now, the Chancellor gets in tune with the grim reality. After the awkwardness of the elongation of plant life in Japan broke the accident. After the elongation Fukushima froze and disconnected the seven older plants for three months. After what he describes as "deeply hurt" by the results antinuclear Baden-Württemberg, Merkel now suggests that most of the seven central moratorium will not return to work.

"My position is no longer the same since the events in Japan," said the first statement after losing more than half a century of hegemony in Baden-Württemberg. "We have lost the government in Baden-Württemberg after 58 years and we are not going to overcome overnight." "We will leave it with a new concept, what happened in Japan was so unlikely that I think will have an impact on Germany's risk assessment of nuclear energy," he said.

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