The election campaign in Germany is at the final jokes: in just a week the citizens of the country will decide those who will govern the nation in the coming years. The competition was turned on by what was considered unprecedented to the vice -president of the United States, who criticized the country management and met the alternative representatives for Germany (Afd), the party of the radical right accused of sympathies Neo Nazi and against which, for years, a health cordon has been underway in Parliament. The speech of the right arm of Donald Trump, held at the Monaco conference, had the effect of compacting the country’s main parties against the Afd, whose consensus, however, could be at the historic tops.
Tension to the stars
This unusual electric atmosphere, in a country where political clashes are still in the name of moderation and composure, clearly emerged during an unprecedented television debate, held last night (Sunday 16 February) on the RTL channel. The debate was not a duel, as in the previous elections, but brought together the four main contenders for the chancellor for the first time in the history of German television.
For two hours, the outgoing Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the leader of the CDU-Csu Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Green Party Robert Habeck and the exponent of the far-right alternative-right party for Germany (AFD), Alice Weidel, Alice Weidel, They challenged each other in an without compromise television race. The AFD has conquered its place in this “quadrille” thanks to the polls, which provide that the anti-migrant nationalist movement can arrive according to the legislative elections with at least 20 percent, behind the popular, attested between 30 and 32 percent.
Vance warms the debate
And the winner of the debate, according to the Germans, was Merz, who convinced more than the others (32 percent), followed at a distance from the outgoing chancellor Scholz (25 percent) and then, on an equal footing, by Habeck and Weidel ( 18 percent). Obviously, in the debate there was no lack of comments on Vance’s words, pronounced last Friday at the Munich conference on the security of Monaco, in which the vice -president urged the traditional German parties to abandon the “firewall” or “health cord” established starting from the second war world to refuse to govern with the far right.
“I refuse this interference in the German parliamentary elections and in the formation of the government that will follow,” said Merz, adding: “I will not let an American vice president tells me who I have to talk here in Germany”. For his part, Scholz called Vancers’ unacceptable “observations, while the AFD praised the vice president. Weidel welcomed JD Vance’s “clearly” words and underlined the analogies between his program and that of the Trump administration. This applies in particular for immigration, a theme that is dominating the German election campaign and of which the AFD is taking advantage to climb the polls.
The migrant theme
The question has become central following a series of recent attacks or mortal attacks, such as the attack with a car in Monaco last Friday, which caused two deaths and 37 injured, all attacks committed by foreigners present in the country. These events have generated a strong concern in public opinion, to the point that Merz promised a firm tight on immigration, criticizing the old leader Angela Merkel and even going so far as to promise not to respect the European common rules on kindergarten.
According to the last survey of the public broadcaster ARD, the CDU-CSU is widely in the lead with 32 percent, followed by the AFD, accredited by 21 percent: a record at national level, double the result obtained in 2021. The Social Democratic Party of the Debcolz Chancellor, whose coalition with the green and liberals of the FDP is implosed due to the continuous disputes on budgetary policy, would stop at 14 percent, its lowest share since the post -war period, on par with the green.
The possible alliances
Merz has already urged the “large center” parties to cooperate after the vote. However, the entry of the FDP into the Bundestag is not guaranteed, which would make it complex to find a centrist majority, in an increasingly fragmented political landscape. To further complicate the picture, there is the arrival of a new left -wing populist party, born from the split of the traditional left of Die Linke and led by Sarah Wagenknecht (BSW), particularly strong in the Eastern of the country. At the moment, the scenario of a “great coalition” between conservatives and the SPD seems the most likely.
