Continuity amid change

Mixed reactions to Angela Merkel's win found mainly conservative European newspapers praising the new duo of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and free-market liberal Free Democrats (FDP), who are led by longtime party head Guido Westerwelle. Many left-leaning news sources decried the Social Democratic Party (SPD) loss as a further sign of the decline of the social market economy. Across the board, however, it was noted that Merkel's small margin left her little to gloat over. And commentators agreed that sweeping change is not in the offing, despite the new power distribution toward the right.

The Times of London was optimistic about the future of Germany, and Europe as a whole, under the new Merkel government, saying she "now has an unparalleled chance to carry out those reforms that have for years eluded both the SPD and the grand coalition. The first is to streamline Germany's economy to bolster its emergence from recession and allow it again to capture lost export markets. She is helped by having as a new ally the FDP, the main winners from this election."

The paper went on to call Merkel's victory "a vote of confidence that few other current European leaders could expect. It allows her room and time to tackle unpopular issues, such as Germany's deployment in Afghanistan. And it gives the EU's industrial dynamo a leadership that has been too muted in the past four years. Expect few surprises from this quietly powerful leader. Expect instead new confidence in Berlin that will help all its allies."

According to the Neue Zuercher Zeitung out of Zurich, the FDP deserved its victory. Merkel's re-election was a given, according to the paper. But "the fact that the party alliances are clarified is a decisive victory for the FDP and its dogged leader, Guido Westerwelle. His liberals were the only ones who did not turn their backs on their principles in the past years. Instead they tried, even during the darkest events of the worst economic crisis in years, to anchor their politics in something like responsibility and discipline. Their perseverance was rewarded by voters with the best results in years. And we can only hope that the liberals get the place they deserve in the new coalition."

The election result left Milan's Corriere della Sera with a much more bitter aftertaste. The paper issued a warning that a long-stable Germany now risks falling into Italian-style political paralysis and instability. "It has been clear for a long time that most Germans wanted Angela Merkel to lead the country for a second term. But unfortunately, Germany has become Italianized. The tendency is going away from bi-polar politics, towards "penta-polarism," with five strong parties; this means election results can lead theoretically to four or five possible coalitions.

"Now the time has come where, as the chancellor hoped, Christian Democrats and free-market liberals will rule together. But the old German consensus - based on the exchange between equally responsible and reliable political powers, has been damaged. The German republic is, as of today, less stable and less predictable."

"This isn't how winners look," trumpeted the Basel, Switzerland-based Basler Zeitung, which focused on the poor returns the CDU ultimately booked in the election. Informing readers who may not have watched news coverage on television, the paper noted that "CDU and CSU [the CDU's Bavarian sister party] leaders looked pained as they celebrated their victory, which brings a middle-class-oriented government back to Germany for the first time since Helmut Kohl was unseated 11 years ago. The [CDU and CSU] can't be pleased with their result, since its margins were so poor - worse even than Kohl's in 1998."

Yet ultimately, the Basler Zeitung looked positively toward the next government, calling the new coalition "good for Germany. German politicians can only let the country's real strengths unfold when the roles of leadership and opposition are divided between CDU and SPD. It remains to be seen whether Merkel's government can actually make inroads when it comes to content. The CDU and FDP still need to come up with a plan to steer the country out of the financial crisis and into the future."

In contrast, Madrid's El Pais noted that the SPD's loss may have political implications beyond Germany's borders. "Germany has experienced a turn towards free-market liberalism," the paper wrote. "And yet this has come about at just the same time as most western states are moving in exactly the opposite direction politically. The spectacular fall of the SPD marks a heavy blow to the European left. Its absence in the most important European countries - in France, Germany and soon in Great Britain - will be glaring."

"For German social democracy and for the European left, which claims the SPD as its oldest party, the result is more than bitter," wrote Rome's La Repubblica, about the SPD's more than 10 percentage point loss over the last election, its worst outcome in post-war history. The party "didn't deserve such a fiasco in the elections," the paper wrote, saying it was a "high price four years of co-governance with the biggest center-right party in the country."

"It can also be seen as an unfair judgment on the part of voters, since the "grand coalition" steered the country (somewhat uninspiringly but not without merit,) through the financial crisis. Throughout all this, the German Social Democrats were the loyal partners of the Christian Democrats. But the voters have decided that this was just an interim situation, and it need not continue."

But a regional French newspaper from Strasbourg, just across the German border in France, suggested the ousted Social Democrats could ultimately be pleased with the latest election results. "The German consensus over the social market economy will be led without the SPD, which isn't necessarily unhappy about being voted out of power. This is because while they were in power, the SPD managed to push through some structural reforms which the CDU would never have dared," wrote the Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace.

Meanwhile, Dutch daily de Volkskrant said it doubts the new government of CDU and FDP will run as smoothly as many seem to think. "On first look, the new lay of the land seems pretty clear. There is a right-wing government, and a completely left-wing opposition. But it is not quite as easy as it seems. One question for the coming weeks is whether the FDP and CDU/CSU can really work together as well as they hope. [The coalition] will be different this time around than it was under former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Today, the FDP is much bigger than it was then, and will probably carry more influence - even if Angela Merkel should disagree with some of their social policies. Another question is whether the parties on the left will actually manage to work together as an effective opposition," the paper wrote.

And finally, despite Merkel's win, Austrian paper Die Presse remained scathingly critical of the chancellor's cautious political style. "During her first term, she lost her chance to distinguish herself as a 'chancellor of reform.' Now her wiggle room is getting even tighter. She will hardly be able to finance her promised tax reductions, considering the 86-billion-euro ($126 billion) deficit that is expected."

"Germany is faced with enormous tasks: Not only must it reduce its mountain of debt, but it must make its social system fit for a graying society, where the aging pyramid is upside-down. Even if Merkel wanted to change things: There is still the Bavarian CSU and the CDU premiers who can be relied upon to stymie structural reform. The next federal government will move along just like that last one; in the baby steps that Merkel clearly prefers."

Compiled by DW staff (jen)
Editor: Nancy Isenson