Angela Merkel becomes chancellor, but outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats get an equal number of seats in her Cabinet. Germany's "grand coalition" deal ends weeks of political crisis but seems a recipe for paralysis -- and another early election.
Still, on issues from reforming the welfare state to tackling high unemployment, there is a chance for some common ground -- and legislators from both parties could team up to enable Merkel to push through parts of her reformist agenda.
The stakes are high for Germany and Europe, which is struggling to find a way to pay for its social protections while improving sluggish growth amid global competition from countries where businesses aren't weighed down by European-style benefits and payroll taxes.
PHOTO: EPA
Indeed, the muddled result in Germany -- Europe's largest economy -- is emblematic of a wider malaise at the heart of Europe: People seem to be aware of the need for the type of painful reform that Merkel represents but are afraid of granting a mandate for its execution.
Merkel, a former scientist, herself once dismissed the idea of a coalition involving the Social Democrats, describing it as "stagnation."
But she had to strike the deal because she couldn't secure an outright majority to enact changes such as making it easier to fire workers at small companies or for companies and workers to opt out of the regional wage bargaining favored by unions. The Social Democrats have vowed to stop such changes.
And she'll have to turn the Foreign Ministry over to the Social Democrats, who applauded Schroeder's willingness to stand up to Washington over the war in Iraq. She and the Social Democrats have opposite stances on EU membership for Turkey -- she is against, they are in favor.
She has said she would continue Schroeder's policy of supporting reconstruction in Iraq by training security personnel outside the country without sending German troops.
There might be room for some horsetrading on the key economic questions. For instance, the left could agree to some loosening of worker protections, so long as the regional wage system isn't touched.
And the two sides appear to have common ground on fixing Germany's budget deficit, which will require restraint in new spending.
The result will be both parties favoring their centrist wings; the advocates of market reforms in the Social Democrats and the union-friendly members of Merkel's Christian Democrats. Merkel went so far as to praise Schroeder's limited reforms, such as cutting long-term jobless benefits; she just said they didn't go far enough.
But as might be expected with a marriage of convenience, the coalition is not generating much enthusiasm. Bild, the country's biggest paper, lamented "Grand Coalition: We Pay and Pay and Pay," referring to expected revenue-raising measures to fix the budget deficit.
Merkel is hardly a Margaret Thatcher, who as British prime minister in the 1980s launched a sweeping attack on labor unions. Instead, she campaigned on a modest pledge to trim payroll taxes by two percentage points -- but wanted to make up the lost revenue by raising value-added tax.
One secret weapon of the new government: low expectations.
If people anticipate it will be able to do nothing, even minimal reforms will look like success. So it was with the last time Germany tried a left-right coalition, from 1966-69; many though it wouldn't last, but it held out for three years.
If Merkel reads her history she may note that after the two parties worked together, the next election produced a government led by the Social Democrats.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia