Post by Bozur on Nov 24, 2005 2:12:08 GMT -5
Germany Passes Torch to New Generation
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
Published: November 22, 2005
BERLIN, Nov. 21 - At long last, two months after one of the strangest elections in Germany's modern history, Parliament seems certain on Tuesday to elect Angela Merkel, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Party, as chancellor, the first woman to hold the position.
Mrs. Merkel will immediately take power, name a cabinet and actually start governing, after weeks of intense negotiations over a program to pursue a "grand coalition" with her chief rivals, the Social Democrats of the departing Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
It is not only that Mrs. Merkel is a woman, or even that she will be the first chancellor from the former East Germany, that promises to make Tuesday a moment to remember in this country's history.
In what now seems a swift and unexpected change, Mrs. Merkel's arrival in power signals a shift to a new political generation, one that did not go through the usual rites of passage to power in Germany.
By an almost eerie coincidence, the Social Democratic Party last week elected a new leader, Matthias Platzeck, who is also an easterner, leading to much comment that after holding them in something close to contempt since unification, the western power brokers have turned to easterners to guide them out of the country's economic crisis.
The emergence of Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Platzeck probably does not constitute a broad trend, but analysts say they both represent some of the qualities of the generation now taking over in German politics.
They are seen as potentially more pragmatic and less ideologically driven than those who have governed for the last half-century or so. Perhaps most significant, the new leaders are one step further removed from the earlier leadership's preoccupation with German history and the limitations it placed on their freedom of action.
Not only is the generation represented by chancellors like Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl gone, after it brought West Germany safely through the cold war and into the era of unification. Gone, too, are the more recent politicians, like Mr. Schröder and his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, who came of age during the 1960's student protests and who have dominated German politics for the last seven years.
What takes their place is not entirely certain, in part because the newcomers are outsiders and have less of a track record than is normal for top political leaders here. Indeed, it is far from certain that the coalition government Mrs. Merkel will bring to power will last long enough to make much of an impact.
But what is certain is that at a moment that everybody deems critical, the chiefs of both parties are different from what came before.
"It's an important symbol that the easterners have come to power," said Uwe Andersen, a political science professor at Ruhr University in Bochum. "They have a more pragmatic way of doing things and they are used to big changes in life, and therefore, I think, they are not so reluctant to face up to new challenges."
Another specialist on German politics, Claus Leggewie of Giessen University, predicts that the new leaders, in partial rebellion against the prior generation, will be more conservative and more focused on business and concrete problems. He also expects them to continue to move beyond the moral preoccupations of the German past.
Mrs. Merkel takes power with the economy having stagnated for five years, unemployment at postwar highs and no national consensus about what to do about it.
Indeed, as the price she had to pay for coming to power, Mrs. Merkel had to give the Social Democrats half of the seats in the cabinet and jettison, at least for now, many of the elements of her platform.
In exchange for their deal to retain a 3 percent rise in sales taxes, a central part of her original program, Mrs. Merkel accepted an income tax increase to be imposed on the wealthy, even as her proposals to reduce labor costs by loosening job protection laws and reorganizing the health insurance system have been put off.
Many Germans have criticized the deal to create a coalition as a lowest common denominator program inadequate to the task of reviving the economy. But the compromises that both sides have made seem to reflect the deep uncertainty within the electorate about how much of the country's elaborate social welfare system to give up for the sake of economic competitiveness.
Much will depend on the character of the new leaders, and that is where the nature of the new generation governing Germany comes into play. Mrs. Merkel, the pastor's daughter who became a physicist and got involved in politics only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, is not the only figure with such a background to emerge to power and prominence.
Indeed, the similarities between Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Platzeck in that sense are remarkable. At 51, both are 10 years younger than the departing chancellor, Mr. Schröder. Like Mrs. Merkel, Mr. Platzeck was trained as a scientist, and became involved in politics only as the East German government was falling, and therefore, unlike the usual Social Democratic leader, did not have a long career working his way up through the ranks.
Professor Andersen said the Social Democrats liked Mr. Platzeck for being relatively unknown. He responded to them with "a very party-oriented speech," Mr. Andersen said.
"But I'm not sure he will stick to this position," the professor said, "because he knows, as someone who was in power in a former Eastern state, that it's not possible to stick to the old social model anymore."
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
Published: November 22, 2005
BERLIN, Nov. 21 - At long last, two months after one of the strangest elections in Germany's modern history, Parliament seems certain on Tuesday to elect Angela Merkel, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Party, as chancellor, the first woman to hold the position.
Mrs. Merkel will immediately take power, name a cabinet and actually start governing, after weeks of intense negotiations over a program to pursue a "grand coalition" with her chief rivals, the Social Democrats of the departing Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
It is not only that Mrs. Merkel is a woman, or even that she will be the first chancellor from the former East Germany, that promises to make Tuesday a moment to remember in this country's history.
In what now seems a swift and unexpected change, Mrs. Merkel's arrival in power signals a shift to a new political generation, one that did not go through the usual rites of passage to power in Germany.
By an almost eerie coincidence, the Social Democratic Party last week elected a new leader, Matthias Platzeck, who is also an easterner, leading to much comment that after holding them in something close to contempt since unification, the western power brokers have turned to easterners to guide them out of the country's economic crisis.
The emergence of Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Platzeck probably does not constitute a broad trend, but analysts say they both represent some of the qualities of the generation now taking over in German politics.
They are seen as potentially more pragmatic and less ideologically driven than those who have governed for the last half-century or so. Perhaps most significant, the new leaders are one step further removed from the earlier leadership's preoccupation with German history and the limitations it placed on their freedom of action.
Not only is the generation represented by chancellors like Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl gone, after it brought West Germany safely through the cold war and into the era of unification. Gone, too, are the more recent politicians, like Mr. Schröder and his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, who came of age during the 1960's student protests and who have dominated German politics for the last seven years.
What takes their place is not entirely certain, in part because the newcomers are outsiders and have less of a track record than is normal for top political leaders here. Indeed, it is far from certain that the coalition government Mrs. Merkel will bring to power will last long enough to make much of an impact.
But what is certain is that at a moment that everybody deems critical, the chiefs of both parties are different from what came before.
"It's an important symbol that the easterners have come to power," said Uwe Andersen, a political science professor at Ruhr University in Bochum. "They have a more pragmatic way of doing things and they are used to big changes in life, and therefore, I think, they are not so reluctant to face up to new challenges."
Another specialist on German politics, Claus Leggewie of Giessen University, predicts that the new leaders, in partial rebellion against the prior generation, will be more conservative and more focused on business and concrete problems. He also expects them to continue to move beyond the moral preoccupations of the German past.
Mrs. Merkel takes power with the economy having stagnated for five years, unemployment at postwar highs and no national consensus about what to do about it.
Indeed, as the price she had to pay for coming to power, Mrs. Merkel had to give the Social Democrats half of the seats in the cabinet and jettison, at least for now, many of the elements of her platform.
In exchange for their deal to retain a 3 percent rise in sales taxes, a central part of her original program, Mrs. Merkel accepted an income tax increase to be imposed on the wealthy, even as her proposals to reduce labor costs by loosening job protection laws and reorganizing the health insurance system have been put off.
Many Germans have criticized the deal to create a coalition as a lowest common denominator program inadequate to the task of reviving the economy. But the compromises that both sides have made seem to reflect the deep uncertainty within the electorate about how much of the country's elaborate social welfare system to give up for the sake of economic competitiveness.
Much will depend on the character of the new leaders, and that is where the nature of the new generation governing Germany comes into play. Mrs. Merkel, the pastor's daughter who became a physicist and got involved in politics only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, is not the only figure with such a background to emerge to power and prominence.
Indeed, the similarities between Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Platzeck in that sense are remarkable. At 51, both are 10 years younger than the departing chancellor, Mr. Schröder. Like Mrs. Merkel, Mr. Platzeck was trained as a scientist, and became involved in politics only as the East German government was falling, and therefore, unlike the usual Social Democratic leader, did not have a long career working his way up through the ranks.
Professor Andersen said the Social Democrats liked Mr. Platzeck for being relatively unknown. He responded to them with "a very party-oriented speech," Mr. Andersen said.
"But I'm not sure he will stick to this position," the professor said, "because he knows, as someone who was in power in a former Eastern state, that it's not possible to stick to the old social model anymore."