(26 September 2017) – Last Sunday’s election implies the end of the German political model as we have known it since 1949. Contemporary Germany has come to the end of its normalisation course, writes Amandine Crespy, a lecturer at Brussels Free University (ULB).
.jpg){kind=link}
The main novelty of this election is of course the spectacular breakthrough of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) which not only enters the Bundestag, but will also occupy 96 seats or only 59 seats less than the SDP (out of 709). Should a grand coalition be eventually formed, the radical right would be the main opposition force.
With a loss of respectively 8.5 and 5.2% of the votes, the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats are clearly the main losers. While the German Social Democrats seemed to have fared better than their European counterparts, last Sunday’s result show that this is not the case, with the party now being at a historical low of 20.5% of the votes.
Finally, this year’s election has key implications with regard to the German position in the expected new historical grand bargain aimed at reshaping the European Union. (Social Europe)