Publikation State / Democracy - Political Parties / Election Analyses After eight years of Merkel: No trouble?

The political climate in Germany in the summer before the election. Policy Paper 5/2013 by Cornelia Hildebrandt, Horst Kahrs, Harald Pätzolt.

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Policy Papers

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Cornelia Hildebrandt, Harald Pätzolt,

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August 2013

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The CDU/CSU’s strategy of governing until the summer and then running a short election campaign has been successful. Although there are only two months to go until the federal election on 22 September, it would be difficult to claim that the country is in election mood, let alone in a mood for change. There is currently far less desire for a change of government than before the elections in 2005 and 2009. Despite this, the existing governing coalition of the (conservative) CDU/CSU and the (liberal) FDP does not even have the strongest public support of all possible political constellations. In terms of support, the current coalition ranks behind a coalition of the (social democratic) SPD and the Greens, and most strongly of all behind a coalition of the (governing) CDU and the SPD. Clearly many voters long for a return to the grand coalition of the CDU and the SPD. However, this is mainly due to the weakness of the FDP, which is caused by the party’s clientelism and continued adherence to neoliberalism; as such, it is not even clear whether the FDP will regain entry into the next parliament.

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