German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s troubled coalition is expected to suffer defeat in two regional elections midway through his term, while the far right is poised for further gains, France-Presse (AFP) reports today.
Nearly 14 million German voters are eligible to cast ballots next Sunday in southern Bavaria, Germany’s largest and most economically prosperous state, and western Hesse, where rising immigration and socio-economic problems are among the key issues.
Scholz came to power about two years ago, leading a three-party coalition, but within months his government had to grapple with the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine. Berlin was forced to abandon its long-standing pacifist stance to support Kyiv, while the ensuing energy crisis hit Europe’s leading economy particularly hard, sending it into recession, AFP notes.
On top of these problems, Scholz’s coalition, which includes his center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), is locked in bitter internal infighting over issues ranging from climate laws to spending cuts.
Politics at the national level and disagreements within the coalition dominate public opinion polls, she said in an interview with AFP Ursula Munch, director of the Academy of Political Education in Tutzing. Major disputes over issues such as a new law to cut home heating emissions are seen as “examples of the current government simply failing to take action,” she said.
Arndt Leiningera political expert from the Chemnitz University of Technology, in turn sees the situation with the upcoming elections this way:
“The parties forming the federal government are in a bad starting position here. In both states (Bavaria and Hesse), all three (coalition) parties are currently behind their previous results in the last regional elections.”
Both Bavaria and Hesse are conservative strongholds: Hesse has been ruled for 24 years by the now main opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and Bavaria has been ruled since 1957 by the Christian Social Union (CSU), led by Markus Soeder.
Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is forecast to make gains in the two regions following a recent surge in its national ratings and a string of local election victories. While the AfD is not expected to enter government in any of the states (its strongholds are in East Germany), further progress by the German far right will once again sound alarm bells for Scholz about its growing popularity.
2023-10-05 05:26:00
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