Oh dear. More than three months since Germans went to the polls, and gave the CDU-SPD government a bloody nose, its politicians have finally emerged from the latest coalition talks – and the result is yet another cosy alliance between the CDU and the SPD. You’ve got to feel for German voters. In the Fatherland it seems no matter who you vote for, the so-called ‘grand coalition’ of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats almost always wins.
It wasn’t meant to be this way. In September’s election the CDU and SPD both recorded their worst result since the Second World War – 33 percent for the CDU (down nearly 9 percent) and 20.5 percent for the SPD (down by more than 5 percent). After that bruising verdict, SPD leader Martin Schulz said he wouldn’t enter another grand coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, yet here they are again, together again – Germany’s Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
The reason for Schulz’s change of heart was the breakdown of the previous coalition talks, between Merkel’s CDU, the Free Democrats and the Greens.
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