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Germany could hold new elections if Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union fails to form a stable coalition government:
The breakdown of the coalition talks last weekend has done more than dent Ms. Merkel's seeming invulnerability and raise the prospect of new elections, analysts say. Although the Social Democrats agreed on Friday to meet with the chancellor's party next week — raising hopes for, if not a coalition, then a tolerated minority government — the current situation may well signal the breakdown of Germany's postwar tradition of consensus and the dawn of a messy and potentially unnerving politics.
"The distinctive political tradition of the Federal Republic of Germany is change through consensus," said Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at the University of Oxford. That was what was at stake, he said. "It hasn't worked so far this time."
The leader of the Social Democrats has said that the party's members would have to vote on joining a coalition led by Merkel.
Also at DW (alternate), BBC, The Hill, and NYT (11/20 editorial).
Related: Germany's jubilant far-right has Merkel in its sights
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Saturday November 25 2017, @01:34PM (1 child)
Letting them in is clearly not the right answer. This is a problem that has to be resolved. There was actually a system in place, at least on paper -- but it collapsed as soon as it was tried in reality. The Schengen agreement was there to help people (and goods) IN Europe to move about freely. It was not to let foreigners move about as they wanted. The Dublin Regulation collapsed almost instantly since was what was supposed to control this, asylum seekers should apply for asylum at the first safe country they reach, ie a border country, not walk across all of Europe to reach their "dream", in which case they are not actual asylum seekers but economical migrants. So either way it is something to be resolved and not something that one just have to endure like the merger of East- and West-Germany. (But I do agree that Goodbye Lenin was an excellent movie).
There is no doubt that Angela Merkel was once a good leader, but she put all her power behind a failure and there is probably no coming back from this. She is personally associated with, and responsible for, a horrible failure that will plague Germany and Europe for decades. There is just no getting past that and the only reason she probably isn't gone already is that there is no one around to replace her. All the other power players in the country are weak, she has not groomed and heir either. The rise of the AFD is in that way a response to her failure.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Saturday November 25 2017, @02:30PM
I agree with what you say about Schengen and the Dublin Regulation; I suspect that it was set up to deal with a stream of a few thousand Somalis and Congolese and Afghanis per year. No law or regulation was prepared for this "Great Migration Period", at least our modern-day Visigoths and Merovingians and Huns just fled from war, the vast majority of them didn't bring it with them (maybe in their heads though. One Syrian asylum seeker kid in my village couldn't speak anymore).