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The Balance Sheet of the Grand Coalition (September 17, 2009)

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The Horrors of the Crisis

Psychological conditions had therefore been good until the financial crisis broke out after the Grand Coalition’s third year in office. It would not have been surprising if the worst economic crisis since the 1930s had unhinged the economy-obsessed Germans. When, at the height of developments, the chancellor and her finance minister unexpectedly went before the public and guaranteed savings deposits in Germany, no one knew whether their efforts would calm the population or really cause panic.

When the global collapse suddenly transformed the state into a prominent player, it seemed as though the Grand Coalition had been forged for a second time. Was this not the kind of challenge that would give this unusual alliance an opportunity to really show what it was made of? At any rate, it can be said that the partners never acted more unanimously or with greater resolve than when faced with the horrors of the unfolding crisis. In a series of lightning quick actions, they steered a bank rescue package through the parliament and passed the first economic stimulus program, a rescue fund for teetering companies, and then a second stimulus package. The SPD had always been fond of pinning the “Social Democratic” label on the Grand Coalition led by Angela Merkel, but now that a CDU chancellor was nationalizing banks and saving ailing car brands, it suddenly seemed amazingly fitting.

The Grand Coalition succeeded in stabilizing the German banking system, softening the blow of the economic collapse, and shoring up the labor market. The politicians continue to look back on these achievements with a kind of disbelieving pride. The cash-for-clunkers program may very well prove to be nothing more than a several-billion-Euro delay of the inevitable car industry crisis, and rescuing Opel may turn out to be a case of market-distorting interventionism without any prospect of economic success, but such skepticism today hardly detracts from the dizzying success of the Grand Coalition’s crisis managers. So far they have managed to guide the country through the crisis remarkably well. Despite their modesty, this has been a kind of heroic political experience.

But the anti-confrontational satisfaction exuded by successful political leaders is just one aspect of the current election year, which is also marked by a lack of communication between these leaders and the people. There is a widespread suspicion in the public that the real dimensions of the crisis are not yet known. But this is the very terrain that the governing parties are trying to avoid in their election campaigns. Perhaps they know just as little about what is in store for the country as their voters. Yet there might be something misleading about the calmness with which these voters are accepting the well-worn election mottos. The Grand Coalition can present a tolerable balance sheet, and yet the two large parties – and not only the ailing SPD – could pay a heavy price on September 27. In return for four fairly successful years of work.



Source: Matthias Geis, “So war’s!” [“How it Was”], Die Zeit, no. 39, September 17, 2009.

Translation: Adam Blauhut

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