Germany

German chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic alliance (CDU/CSU) celebrated a sweeping victory in the German federal elections held last Sunday. On the basis of an 7.8 percent swing the CDU/CSU scored over 18 million votes and a share of 41.5 percent – their best result in national elections for 20 years. Yet due to the German system of proportional representation this massive swing was not big enough to secure an overall majority of seats for the CDU/CSU in the new Bundestag, the federal parliament based in the old Reichstag building in Berlin. 

Against the background of the current wage round a new and big strike wave embracing the public sector, the engineering industry and the privatised Deutsche Telekom is possible in Germany this spring.

The coalition government of Angela Merkel of the CDU, CSU and FDP in Berlin, known by the colours of these parties as “black-yellow”, has lost a significant amount of its support since the election victory of September 2009.

According to the Bundesbank, German GDP grew by 3.6% in 2010. This comes after the steep 4.7% drop in 2009, when the recession hit Germany hard. Unemployment has gone down from the 10.5% peak of 2005 to 7%. It now stands at just under three million. Volkswagen is taking on 3,000 workers, BMW and Daimler 400 each. Lufthansa has announced plans to take on an extra 4,000 staff this year. The same picture can be seen in chemicals, electronics and other industries. When the rest of Europe is facing lay-offs and sluggish growth, what is different about Germany?

Tens of thousands of left-wing activists and socialists from all over Germany came to Berlin last Sunday to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the most famous representatives of German Marxism in the early 20th century and founders of the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1918.

The crisis of capitalism is creating an unstable social and political situation in Germany. Tensions are emerging within the coalition government, elected only last year. Most interestingly, this is having a radicalising effect inside DIE LINKE, which is being pulled both left and right, with some of the leaders attracted by coalition politics while the more radical ranks react against and seek an alternative to the left.