By IRNA,
Berlin : Sunday’s elections in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, are viewed by many as a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s second term after winning re-election in September.
Polls predict that North-Rhine-Westphalia’s ruling center-right coalition of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and her junior coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) will be defeated by the Social Democrats and Greens.
An imminent loss is to have a profound impact on the chancellor’s future political agenda since the CDU and FDP — both of whom are also forming a national governing coalition — lose their majority in parliament’s upper house, Bundesrat which represents Germany’s 16 states and plays a key role in approving major laws.
Pointing to Sunday’s crucial elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Nuremberg-based Nuernberger Nachrichten labeled it a “sort of second”
nationwide elections.
Echoing the assessment, the Heidelberg-based newspaper Rhein-Neckar Zeitung stressed Sunday’s elections were also “a vote on the chancellor.”
Faced with a slew problems including the Greek financial crisis, tax cuts, Afghanistan, energy and health care reforms, Merkel managed to mostly duck away from these challenges for nearly six months in an effort not to damage her party’s re-election bid in Sunday’s poll.
However, Merkel’s political strategy backfired badly as a result of the Greek financial disaster which led Germany’s opposition parties to fiercely
criticize her for merely sitting out the crisis.
This was also reflected in a sharp drop in Merkel’s personal approval ratings from once 70 to now 48 percent.
The chancellor’s initial strong resistance to the European rescue package for Greece was backed by the public but Merkel’s caving in to US and European Union pressure has been met with strong disapproval among Germans.
Friday’s parliamentary vote on Germany’s 22.4 billion euro bailout for Greece, only two days before the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, will make it even harder for Merkel’s CDU to stay in office.
But it’s not only the CDU but also Merkel’s political future that is at stake, the news magazine Der Spiegel said in analytical piece.
Sunday’s election will determine how Merkel can proceed with her chancellery, the paper said.
Merkel is well aware that the people of North Rhine-Westphalia could use their vote “to teach her a lesson” for making unpopular decisions like her bailout of Greece, it added.
An end to the CDU-FDP coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia after only one term could be a “devastating signal” for the national coalition in Berlin which had already a very rough start due to ongoing inner-coalition skirmishes on a wide range of political issues after winning the general elections last year, Der Spiegel pointed out.
A loss in the state elections on Sunday could also have a domino effect for the center-right coalition in the upcoming six state polls next year, according
to political experts in the German capital.
Losing in North Rhine-Westphalia could severely dent the political career of the chancellor and it may be very hard for her to get back on her feet since
the real tough decisions, such as social cuts and other unpopular austerity measures, will have to be made after May 9.
Until now things were going rather smooth for Merkel and her strategy was more or less working out but now she will be facing some major political storms, should her party lose on Sunday.
Her political gamble of sitting out the problems until the elections may not pay off after all, said a political insider with close ties to the chancellery.