German voters deserve a more serious election campaign
A milquetoast contest fails to confront the hard choices facing Europe’s biggest economy
GERMANY’S ELECTION on September 26th will herald a new era. Angela Merkel, chancellor for 16 years, is stepping down. Who will succeed her is uncertain. Parliamentary elections employ a mix of proportional representation (with a 5% threshold for parties to make it in to the Bundestag) and single-district constituencies. The traditional big parties, Mrs Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats along with their Bavarian counterparts (CDU/CSU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), are winning fewer votes, and coalitions often bridge the right-left divide. That makes it hard to predict the next government even if polls are accurate, which often they are not.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “After Merkel, muddle”
From the August 14th 2021 edition
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