Last weekend, Germany went to the polls to determine the members of the 20th Term Bundestag and the new government. Compared to 2017, the participation rate in the elections showed a partial increase with 77 percent, albeit low. Interestingly, the party of a chancellor like Angela Merkel who left her mark on German political history faced the lowest public support since the Second World War. According to unofficial results, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) took the lead with 25.7 percent of the vote. Christian Unity Parties (CDU/CSU) remained at 24.1 percent. Meanwhile, with 14.8 percent of the vote, the Green Party had the highest rate of votes in its history. The Liberal Party (FDP) was able to reach 11.5 percent of the vote. The far-right AFD, on the other hand, proved to be permanent in German politics with 10.3 percent, even though it lost 2 percent of the vote compared to the previous election.
Today, everyone actually agrees that Chancellor Angela Merkel had a very successful 16 years. Despite this, the question of why his party did not win stands in the middle as the most important topic for which the answer is curious. Why might the German people have made such a decision, let's try to understand it briefly.
The most important factor complicating the work of the Christian Democrats was that the SPD candidate was Olaf Scholz, the former mayor of Hamburg and the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in the current cabinet. Because Scholz drew a successful profile in both positions according to the German voters. While the German people gave Merkel her due, they did not forget the Finance Minister Scholz, who contributed to their breathing with dozens of packages he announced under the epidemic conditions, and wanted to highlight her. At the same time, he did not attribute the success of the current government only to Merkel's party, and showed that he was following the junior partner of the coalition in the government.
Another factor was the allegations that the CDU did not make the right decision in the selection of candidates. Armin Laschet, known as "Turkish Armin" by the German public, was serving as the North Rhine State Prime Minister. Another candidate was Bayern State Prime Minister Markus Söder. In the comparison between the two, Söder was said to be more successful. However, Laschet was elected head of the CDU.
In addition, more than 100 people died in the flood disaster in the state where Laschet was Prime Minister. Despite this disaster, Laschet, whose photos of him almost laughing, were reflected in the press, suffered a great loss of reputation.
Now, new government scenarios are being talked about. The current cabinet was that of the Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats who came first in this election. Although the easy option shows that the current cooperation will continue easily without the collapse of the coalition with the passing of the prime ministership to the SPD, the color of the matter is not like that. According to the unofficial results of the 740-seat structure of the Bundestag, the SPD with 210, the Greens with 116, and the Liberals with 93, can form the government very easily.
These results show that the main opposition role was closer to the Christian Unity Parties in this period. In addition, there are comments that the fact that the two main veins of the country are in power together makes the far-right AFD even more permanent in German politics, and these are not forced comments. The results already show this clearly without the need for explanation. It now raises the question of what will be the impact of these results on the relations between Turkey and Germany. Let's consider it in another article. After all, if there is only one answer to the question of what was the message of the German voters in these elections, the most understandable answer would probably be change.