CDU/CSU and FDP win 2009 Bundestag Election
September 27, 2009
The first unofficial results for the election are in:
CDU/CSU: 33.5%
SPD: 23.3%
FDP: 14.6%
Left Party 12.9%
Greens: 10.2%
This situation should be enough to give the conservative CDU/CSU and the liberal FDP enough seats to form a ‘bourgeois government’.
The results for the two big parties are their worst ever; the FDP has its best result in a decade. This election could also set records for another reason: It seems approximately 5% less people cast their votes than at the last election (which was the lowest rate ever).
Neither the SPD or CDU/CSU is impressed with its results; both are blaming the Grand Coalition for their losing an independent profile and driving voters away or to smaller parties. However the Union has achieved its main goal: to govern without the SPD. Angela Merkel’s position is now very strong and this victory will cement her leadership credentials in the conservative Union against the many ambitious potential challengers in her party.
An FDP/Union coalition should really bring about the pro-market reforms that Merkel campaigned for in 2005 but was not able to enact in the Grand Coalition. However the shadow which hung over this year’s election campaign, huge budget deficits for years to come due to bank bailouts in the financial crisis, will severely impede Merkel’s capacity to enact reform. Tax cuts in particular, a favorite goal of the FDP, do not look likely and were laughed off by SPD finance minister Peer Steinbrueck during the campaign as simply impossible.
The SPD is quite open about its result being a disaster. The question is where the party goes from here which, quite frankly, no one can say at the moment. There will be a lot of long faces in the SPD, where many had hoped that another Grand Coalition would allow the party to distribute a decent number of Ministerial and State Secretary positions; a simple Bundestag salary and position in the Opposition pale in comparison.
Comparablog 
September 27, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Difficult times financially for any government in Germany, and it will be interesting to see the new government’s approach. The banking structure has been badly shaken, and there must be concern that further skeletons will not appear from various cupboards.
The general Western European financial situation does seem to be improving, but it is far from robust. Even though some ‘green shoots’ are appearing, the grim conditions across Eastern Europe must be keeping ECB chiefs awake at nights.
September 10, 2017 at 4:08 pm
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