The German Embassy threw a lavish party in London’s Belgrave Square last night to toast the Bundesrepublik’s Day of German Unity, but although the Bier and Sekt flowed freely, and the Ambassador’s Residence was awash with chatter, disunity rather than unity was the main topic of the day.
Germany’s Tag der Deutschen Einheit marks the Reunification of Germany in 1990, one of those rare events in German history of which all Germans can feel proud. The Embassy’s annual jamboree is always jolly, yet there’s a ghost at every feast. Last year’s Banquo was Brexit. This year, it’s AfD.
As German politicians meet in smoke-free rooms to thrash out the formation of the next government (almost certainly a coalition between Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Greens), the question preoccupying German journalists and diplomats is what on earth to do about Alternative für Deutschland, who’ve gone from no seats at all in the last parliament to a whopping 94 this time.
Merkel’s coalition with the Greens and the Free Democrats will go some way towards neutralising AfD’s influence, leaving the Social Democrats as the official opposition – but whichever way you cut it, there’s no getting round it: Alternative fur Deutschland is now the third biggest party in the Bundestag.
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