German elections

I'm interested, partly because my wife and in-laws are German and I spend quite some time there. There doesn't seem much to say though as there will (apparently) be weeks of plotting and scheming before alliances are formed to run the country.

I was vaguely hoping that Angela Merkel would win as I believe that it would have been good for Europe and it would have amused me to see France more isolated. Also, wasn't she in favour of a flat tax system? It might have been interesting to see how that panned out in a Western democratic country. Theories (for and against) are one thing. Practical consequences are something else.

Finally, I'm interested to see how the Brits respond to Schroeder's idea of continuing even with a smaller share of the popular vote than Merkel. I think we know what the reaction would have been if it was G W Bush.

On the whole though, I'm fairly ignorant of German politics - I can never understand the newspapers or the tv news when I visit.

Well, you did ask. :)
 
Well it seems to me to be a truly wasted opportunity, as from a distance the Germans had a choice between continuation with failed policies and botched reforms leading to more economic stagnation or to try some radical policies which potentially offer a chance to break out of the cycle of decline.

Seems like they didnt have the courage to take the tough medicine, which is a real shame for the whole of the EU, as a strong German economy is in all of our interests.
 
I sort of agree with 7_V that this looks as if it might spell and end or at least a weakening of the Franco German axis/alliance that in the view of some has championed conservatism at the expense of organic growth and change. I wonder what the new masters will have to say on the question of Turkish entry into the club as a full member? In the eyes of Old Europe I sometimes get the feeling that accession of Turkey may be a country and a religion too far.
 
Germany has a relatively high Turkish population (over 2.5 million). If Turkey were a member of the EU it would probably be higher still. I suspect that whoever is in power would be wary of the non-Turkish public's reaction to this.

However, my (limited) understanding is that Angela Merkel is opposed to full EU membership talks with Turkey and would instead propose a limited "privileged partnership". Schroeder is on record as being in favour of talks.

Is that about right and was this a big election issue, does anyone know?
 
its gonna be interesting watching the euro price over the next few weeks, europe's financial stability has generally been based on germanys stability over the last 20 odd years, (before the euro i know).

as 7v said it seems somewhat of a wasted chance to shake things up, but then you could say that the brits and yanks also had the same chance and opted against it. i would say that france's euro politicians must be laughing now as they will take this opportunity to gain more control of the central administration, imho.
 

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