Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition suffered a painful blow in a regional election in Berlin yesterday, results showed, amid voter anger over the German leader’s handling of the eurozone debt crisis.
Ms Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) were beaten into second place in the poll, albeit with a slight rise in support compared to previous elections in 2006.
But the junior partner in her fractious coalition, the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), continued to plummet in support, failing by a wide margin to clear the five per cent hurdle needed in Germany for representation in Parliament.
Berlin’s popular and colourful Social Democrat mayor, Klaus Wowereit, secured 29.2 per cent of the vote, according to initial results published by ARD television channel, meaning he must now choose which party to select as coalition partner.
The CDU won 23.4 per cent, a gain in comparison to the 21.3 per cent they gained five years ago in the left-leaning German capital.
The ecologist Green party, which has seen its popularity gain steadily since Japan’s Fukushima catastrophe in March due to their anti-nuclear stance, clinched 17.9 per cent.
At the outset, it had appeared as if the resurgent Greens might challenge Wowereit for power with their high-profile candidate, former federal consumer affairs minister Renate Kuenast, but she proved an erratic campaigner.
A major success story of the election was the spectacular rise of the Pirate Party, which secured its first-ever parliamentary representation in one of Germany’s 16 states, winning 8.6 per cent of the vote.
An irreverent outfit with roots in Scandinavia, the Pirate Party calls for free wireless internet service for all, unlimited access to public transportation funded by taxes and better data protection.
This followed a humiliation two weeks ago in Ms Merkel’s home state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where they were beaten handily by the neo-Nazi NPD party.
“Yet another election debacle for the FDP,” commented the country’s most-read daily, Bild.
This debacle followed another week of bickering between Merkel and her partners after Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Philipp Roesler evoked a default for debt-wracked Greece, sending markets into a tailspin.
The chancellor, named the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine last month, has failed to rein in unruly FDP members who have threatened to torpedo a key parliamentary vote on the crisis later this month.
The eurozone and its woes played a part in the Berlin election, with the FDP’s candidate Christoph Meyer drawing applause on the campaign trail by openly railing against Ms Merkel’s euro policy.
Meanwhile the Social Democrats, the biggest opposition party at the national level, hope the Berlin vote can give it another boost on the road to the 2013 general election.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the party’s parliamentary leader, earlier Sunday ruled out a return to a “grand coalition” with the CDU if the current coalition were to fall apart.
The party is “in no way available” for a grand coalition, Steinmeier, a former foreign minister, told Handelsblatt online.
The 57-year-old hugely popular Wowereit has run a smooth, gaffe-free campaign for a third term in Berlin.
Currently in a coalition with the far-left Linke party, he may opt this time for a tie-up with the Greens.