Germany’s New Normal?
Regional elections in Germany are rarely newsworthy outside of the country, but last week’s elections in Bavaria and Hesse—coming at the halfway point for the tenure of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government—were different. Both states are ruled by conservative minister presidents favored for reelection, while the progressive “traffic light” coalition that governs at the national level in Berlin—a three-party grouping composed of the Social Democrats (“red”), the Greens, and the liberal Free Democratic Party (“yellow”)— is currently deeply unpopular, earning approval ratings of less than 40 percent in recent national polls. So, much like U.S. midterm elections, which usually send a rebuke to the administration in power, these contests ought to have been shoo-ins for the incumbents from the Christian Democrat Union (CDU), the conservative party that is in opposition at the national level.… Seguir leyendo »