The CDU, the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, suffered the blow in two regional polls on Sunday amid anger over a viral coronary response, including a face mask supply scandal and a slow vaccine distribution.
Sunday’s climate in the southwestern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate raised questions about the CDU’s chances in a September 26 general election, when the Germans choose Merkel’s successor.
“It can’t go on like this,” the Der Spiegel said weekly, adding that Merkel ‘s house was “on fire”.
In the automotive midwest of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Greens won 31.4 percent of the vote and the CDU 23.4 percent, forecasts based on early results for broadcaster ZDF showed.
In nearby Rhineland-Palatinate, the Social Democrats (SPD) left first again with 35.5 percent of the vote ahead of the CDU, which led there in polls until last month. but only 26.9 percent in Sunday’s election.
The results were the worst at the CDU in post-World War II Germany in both states.
“This is not a good election afternoon for the CDU,” Paul Ziemiak, the party’s general secretary, told reporters after the election results left.
Green Party faction leader Andreas Schwarz and Baden-Wuerttemberg state parliament president Muhterem Aras strike, on the day of federal state elections, in Stuttgart, Germany, March 14, 2021 [Andreas Gebert/ Reuters]
The Greens rejoiced.
“This is a great start to the year of election,” said Greens co-director Robert Habeck, suggesting the result was a good omen of a national election year.
‘A lot is possible’
Along with fears of another possible wave of coronavirus, CDU officials have been tarnishing the party’s reputation in the past two weeks when a number of conservative lawmakers stopped claims they received payments. to enter into tender contracts.
The CDU saw a major national uptake from 40 percent last June, when Germany was widely praised for its response to the coronavirus pandemic, to around 33 percent this month.
The SPD’s candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday’s results showed a national government without the CDU and its sister party Bavarian CSU could be possible after the September vote.
“There’s a lot possible,” he told broadcaster ARD.
German Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz will speak at a two-day party meeting in Berlin, Germany February 7, 2021 [File: Tobias Schwarz/Pool via REUTERS]
Both regional election results pave the way for potential regional alliances for the Greens, SPD and Liberal Democrats (FDP), who had already ruled in Rhineland-Palatinate before the election. Sunday.
CDU leaders fear that the same group of parties would get enough support to oppose their party at the national level at the September federal vote.
CSU general secretary Markus Blume described Sunday’s magic as a “wake-up call” for the CDU / CSU.
If Germany’s largest bloc wants to stay in power when Merkel comes out after 16 years, it must “regain trust” without delay, he said.
“We need clear decisions and a clear course in the fight against coronavirus,” he said.
‘Strike now’
The first business order should determine the candidate of the bloc for chancellor, media salesman Spiegel said.
The new Armin Laschet CDU Commander is the obvious choice but there is no widespread support.
Critics say it failed to represent a political image as well as a continuum in the post-Merkel era.
Laschet must “free himself from the shadow of Merkel” and “say what the party stands for,” Andreas’er, a historian at the University of Mainz and a member of the CDU, told the Bild every day.
Opinion polls suggest the Germans would like to see Bavarian prime minister and CSU director Markus Soeder in the main job but he has not yet stated his willingness to run.
If Soeder has real ambitions to be chancellor, “he must strike now”, financials Handelsblatt said daily.
A German Chancellor never came from the CSU. Soeder and Laschet want to resolve the appeal case by May 23rd.
The woes of the conservatives come as Germany rains for the third wave of COVID-19, even as they go through the gradual reopening of unnecessary schools and shops.
The latest forecasts by the country’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases predict that new diseases could cross the peak seen in December by mid-April, when about 30,000 were reported. issue every day.
Merkel and the top rulers of 16 German federal states will discuss the next steps in the pandemic fight on March 22nd.