The Outcome of the German Election and the Jamaika Koalition

The German general election was held on the 24th September 2017. The outcome was not too surprising as it showed the CDU, of which Angela Merkel is the leader, come out on top. However, the main aspect of the German election that is worth discussing is the fact that the far right is growing massively. The number of votes for the Union and the SPD has fallen dramatically and the percentage of votes for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has increased enormously from 4.9% to 12.6%. According to the system in the Bundestag, a party with less than 5% of votes are unable to be within the parliament. Therefore, the right wing extremists are now able to have a very large say within the Reichstag.

The German general election was held on the 24th September 2017. The outcome was not too surprising as it showed the CDU, of which Angela Merkel is the leader, come out on top. However, the main aspect of the German election that is worth discussing is the fact that the far right is growing massively. The number of votes for the Union and the SPD has fallen dramatically and the percentage of votes for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has increased enormously from 4.9% to 12.6%. According to the system in the Bundestag, a party with less than 5% of votes are unable to be within the parliament. Therefore, the right wing extremists are now able to have a very large say within the Reichstag.

Alexander Gauland of the AfD has issued a statement claiming his party want to ‘hunt’ Mrs Merkel. This statement and the mere fact they have gained such a large following has severely worried many Germans. Evidently, this is due to the fact they do not wish to repeat history and end up with a parliament with multiple Nazi and other fascist ideologies. Björn Höcke, one of the party’s branch leaders, has also rejected the idea Hitler was “absolutely evil”, arguing that the issue was not “black and white”.

To add to the controversy, Mr Gauland had said the country should "be proud of" its soldiers in both world wars. Therefore, he has stated that the atrocities committed by not only the Wehrmacht but also the SS – such as running concentration camps and shooting thousands of polish people – should no longer frown upon their past and speak of it without shame.

Moreover, the AfD have voiced their very controversial opinions in the form of posters. An example of which is on the left. The speech at the top of the poster translates to: “Burkas? I prefer red wine!”. This is a very passive aggressive attempt to oust immigrants from Germany. The most questionable opinion of the party is that they have specifically targeted Muslims. This is actually a current theme in politics. As a matter of fact the Austrian government have recently banned burkas, following in the footsteps of France and Belgium.

Returning the main topic of the article, in the last parliamentary term the CDU/CSU had formed a coalition with the SPD. Therefore the Bundestag was made up with a centre right and a centre left party in power. However, now Martin Schultz – the leader of the SPD – is refusing to work alongside the Union. This means that the CDU, who do not wish to form a coalition with either the far right (the AfD) or the far left (Die Linke, “The Left”), have been left with the more central parties with which to form a coalition: the liberals and the greens. Thus, the “Jamaican Coalition” is likely to form. This would consist of the CDU/CSU in black, the FDP in yellow and the Grüne in green.