The center-left victory in the German election three years ago was hailed as the rise of a progressive coalition. The government it created achieved l

Germany’s Social Democrats Failed Miserably

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2024-12-24 15:30:14

The center-left victory in the German election three years ago was hailed as the rise of a progressive coalition. The government it created achieved little real progress — and it has now collapsed, without even completing its term in office.

One of the sayings most often (falsely) attributed to Vladimir Lenin holds that “there are decades where nothing happens, and weeks when decades happen.” Outgoing German federal chancellor Olaf Scholz, who doubtless read the Russian revolutionary when he was a leading face of the Marxist-inclined youth wing of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), may very well have thought of these lines earlier this month. Three years into his government’s four-year term, Scholz decided to blow up his coalition rather than allow finance minister Christian Lindner to blackmail him into further budget cuts. After firing Lindner and dismissing his allies in the cabinet, he today presides over a lame-duck government that will limp on until snap elections expected on February 23, 2025. The SPD, with Scholz as its candidate for chancellor, is widely expected to achieve one of its worst-ever results.

The collapse of the “traffic-light coalition,” named for the colors of the three parties involved, has its roots in a number of factors, of which the most pressing was arguably rising energy prices and economic stagnation brought on by the war in Ukraine and, with it, an end to cheap Russian gas for German industry. The sheer will to power of Christian Lindner, leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) and a true believer in neoliberal orthodoxy, also played a role, willing as he was to risk snap elections at a time when his party is only polling 3 percent nationally and has been humiliated in recent state-level contests.