The German Elections

The negotiations after the German elections show the true futility of electoral democracy, even with a multiparty system (we already knew a two party system was worthless, see the U.S. and U.K. elections where both parties supported the Iraq War, while most people opposed it—the most important issue by far in both elections).

While the results were a clear defeat for the globalizers since their candidate was clearly the CDU’s Angela Merkel, the forces of capital have managed to prevent a left coalition from even being considered in Germany even though left of center parties got a majority of the vote. How did they manage that?

Here is what AFP newswire says about the options:

But provisional official results gave the Christian Democrats 35.2 percent, one of their worst scores since World War II, and only narrowly ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD) at 34.3 percent.

The Free Democrats scored a surprisingly strong 9.8 percent, but not enough for Merkel to form the center-right majority she said she needed to rejuvenate the economy and help 4.7 million jobless back to work.

The Greens, partners in the current ruling coalition, tallied 8.1 percent -- too little to save the government in its current form.

But the Social Democrats' dramatic comeback after weeks trailing badly in the polls prompted the charismatic Schroeder, 61, to stake a claim for a third term as chancellor.

The audacious move was starting to look more plausible as it became clear that Merkel would also have a tough time finding viable partners.

Three main options emerged as parties weighed their options.

- An unwieldy left-right "grand coalition" grouping Social Democrats and Christian Democrats -- a choice Merkel had labeled as a recipe for gridlock.

- A center-left alliance bringing together the Social Democrats, Greens and the Free Democrats, known as the "traffic light coalition" for the party colors red, yellow and green.

- A left-center-right alliance linking up the Christian Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Greens. Wags have dubbed this the "Jamaica coalition" as its party colors would match the Caribbean country's flag.

What option is missing? A left coalition, headed by Schroeder, joining the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party (or PDS, the Party of German Socialism). That would have a clear majority, since the Left Party, headed by a popular former leader of the SPD, Oskar Lafontaine, got 8.7% percent of the vote. Note that the Left Party’s results were not even included in the AFP article quoted above, nor was a left coalition even mentioned. The left coalition would have a majority of the vote, 51.1%, so there is still a clear left preference in Germany in spite of the bad economy.

The establishment is willing to consider all kinds of left-right Frankenstein coalitions instead of the natural left coalition (the right does not have a majority, so in order for the CDU to form a government they would have to bring in the Greens (not exactly a natural coalition partner), shredding what little credibility the Green Party has left, or try to form a unity government with the SPD. Now Schroeder right from the start ruled out bringing in the Left Party. Why?

Granted there is a lot of bad blood between Lafontaine and Schroeder, but one would think raw ambition would pave the way for a left coalition. But here’s the rub. The Left Party came into being by attracting disaffected Social Democrats who didn’t like the “reform” approach Schroeder was taking. By “reform” we mean making Germany more hospitable to the interests of global capital. The Left Party wanted Germany to keep it’s labor-friendly, social welfare policies intact. But Schroeder, nominally a socialist (the SPD is a socialist party, although the non-German press calls them Social Democrats because socialism is a bad word in the Anglo-American world), has committed himself to “reforming” German socialism by taking rights and benefits away from workers and citizens. The Left Party opposes that choice.

But Schroeder is a “New Social Democrat” just like Blair is a “new Labor” PM and Clinton was a “New Democrat.” These politicians could put a friendlier, more human face to the vicious, predatory policies of global, corporate late capitalism. But they all, at some point, were told that they could not have power if they ever turned away from the dictates of their masters. Blunting the popular forces of reform in the interests of the owning class was always the role of the Democratic Party in the United States, but for some reason we expect better of the world’s oldest socialist party, the German Social Democratic Party.

It looks like the only place that there is a real choice for voters is in Venezuela.