berlin brief

With the conclusion of the coalition negotiations last Friday in Berlin, Germans now know what the new government of Chancellor Angela Merkel will look like. (see berlinbrief of 24 October, 2009)

The posts related to Foreign Policy will be distributed as follows:

Guido Westerwelle, the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), Merkel’s smaller coalition partner, will as predicted become Germany’s new Foreign Minister. His party colleague and Secretary General of the FDP, Dirk Niebel, will take the Ministry of Development. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (”KT”), the popular Minister of Economics in the previous Merkel government, will become Minister of Defence. An aside to the coalition deal was the post of the German EU Commissioner in Brussels. As quite a surprise, it was given to Günter Oettinger (CDU), the Minister President of the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

My conclusion for Germany’s future Foreign Policy is twofold. (more…)

Take a look at the international media reporting on the coalition deal closed between Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), the Conservative sister party (CSU) of Horst Seehofer and the Free Democrats (FDP) of Guido Westerwelle at the weekend:

AlJazeera.net (24 October 2009): Merkel ’seals’ German coalition.

BBC News (24 October 2009): German coalition agrees tax cut.

DW-World.de (24 October 2009): German coalition deal draws praise and criticism.

International Herald Tribune (24 October 2009): Merkel picks team to govern in Germany.

Le Monde (24 October 2009): En Allemagne, une coalition à forte composante sociale.

NZZ Online (24 October 2009): Viel Eigenlob der neuen deutschen Regierung.

Spiegel Online International (24 October 2009): German Parties agree on new coalition.

The Guardian (24 October 2009): Merkel strikes coalition deal.

John Vincour in the New York Times (26 October 2009): Frankness is best policy for Germany.

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Spiegel Online International compiled what has been written in the German press about the new government of Chancellor Merkel. Take a look at:

Merkel’s new government ‘financially foolhardy and politically faint-hearted’ (26 October, 2009).

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Watch Deutsche Welle’s profile on Germany’s new centre-right coalition government (28 October, 2009).

The European Union’s institutions have entered a period of major transition. A new European Parliament was elected in June 2009. The Treaty of Lisbon that will replace the Treaty of Nice under which the European Union is currently operating will eventually enter into force. (I believe the Czech President makes tactical noises but will eventually add his signature)

The final ratification of the Lisbon Treaty will also put an end to the limbo of the European Commission, the Union’s executive. With the pending entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, in theory the new Commission will have to take office in the fall under the provisions of the Nice Treaty. This would involve a reduction of the current number of Commissioners. In practice it is however likely that the mandate of the outgoing Commission will be extended until the Czech Republic ratifies the Lisbon Treaty. By the way, in Germany the seat in the Commission is part of the coalition deal that is in the making between Chancellor Merkel and the Free Democrats of Guido Westerwelle.

As the European institutions in Brussels are about to go into a new round, there is a whole number of “Germany in the EU” related topics to be picked up by berlinbrief in the weeks to come.

To kick off the “Germany in the EU” series, berlinbrief today starts with an overview on the German MEPs. (more…)

In the future coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Conservative Party (CDU), the Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP) is likely to be asked to appoint the Foreign Minister. It is a custom in Germany’s politics of coalition-building that the smaller partner moves into the Haus am Werderscher Markt.

But it is not a done deal yet. The country is still speculating. On 5 October, one week after the general elections, CDU and FDP sat down together to hammer out a coalition agreement and to decide on who gets which ministry. The liberal leader Guido Westerwelle is the top candidate for the post. (more…)

There were some busy days in Berlin, prior to the election last Sunday. Not only did the parties and candidates accelerate their attempts to mobilize the undecided voters. Berlin was also full of foreign election observers.

There are the OSCE election observers that for the first time came to observe a general election in the Federal Republic of Germany (see Deutsche Welle’s reporting). The American Council on Germany (ACG) organized a study tour; the International Association for the Study of German Politics (IASGP) brought a group of British and American researchers to Berlin and the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst/DAAD) invited foreign experts on Germany to an information tour around the Bundestagswahl. (more…)

Germany is holding a general election on Sunday 27th, 2009.

Things might well stay as they are, i.e. another four years of a grand coalition under Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) with her challenger, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

But there is another possible outcome of Sunday’s elections: that Merkel succeeds with her mission to team up with the Liberal Party (FDP) and form a coalition with them instead. Such a reshuffle of government would have an immediate impact on German Foreign Affairs because by custom, the smaller coalition partner always gets the Foreign Office. In this case, the liberal leader Guido Westerwelle would move into the Haus am Werderscher Markt, following in the footsteps of liberal foreign ministers such as Hans-Dietrich Genscher. (more…)

The good news for those who want to take a break from election campaigns: Germany won’t be making a big splash.

Less than two weeks before election day on 27 September it is quite possible to find campaign-free zones, even in the capital. The US elections last year got more attention amongst the German public, when Germans were happily studying the system of superdelegates and watching Sarah Palin on YouTube. (more…)

Discussing politics in August?! A waste of time, you might think.

Well, the Germans will vote a new government into office on 27 September 2009. I should be lucky to find some foreign policy life in Berlin’s hottest month of the year. Since 2002 it is known that questions of war – or “robust missions”, as they are preferably called by German politicians –, so that questions of war and peace can make or break an election victory. Against all initial polls, then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder made it to his second term in office when campaigning against a support of the U.S. led invasion into Iraq. (more…)