Pablo Hiriart
MADRID. The change of leadership in the Vatican overshadowed another historic event that took place recently: Friedrich Merz was able to take office as German chancellor thanks to a slim majority in Congress after failing in his first attempt because 18 members of the coalition supporting him refused to vote for him.
Is that the “historic” news?
Yes, because a weak leader has arrived at the Chancellery of Europe’s leading power, with half-hearted support from the three traditional political parties, bound hand and foot to take the measures that could pull Germany out of economic stagnation and away from the temptation of fascism.
Merz’s fragile government’s main opponent is the anti-establishment, fascist Alternative für Germany (AfD) party. This party has grown rapidly thanks to the discrediting of the traditional parties, which are unable to control immigration or improve the economy. It is now entering its third year without growth.
Merz won the elections with the support of the Christian Democratic Party and its sister party in Bavaria (Christian Social Union). With a tough agenda against migration and proposals to cut social programs that weigh down the German economy, Merz won.
His victory at the polls was narrow against the second-place AfD, forcing him to ally with the Social Democratic Party, the father of social programs (many of them demagogic and electorally motivated), to scrape together the majority needed in Parliament (Bundestag) to assume the office of chancellor.
Merz’s weakness will prevent him from carrying out the reforms needed to restart the economy. He will also have to deal with Trump’s tariffs, the substantial aid being sent to Ukraine, and the increase in defense spending.
There is no way to prevent the alliance of traditional parties from confirming to the electorate what the propaganda machine of the fascist party (AfD) is telling them: Christian Democrats and Social Democrats are not an alternative for change.
Or at least it is not clear how they will block a fascist, anti-European Union party that opposes the defense of Ukraine and blames immigrants for the ills of the German population, in a manner similar to Hitler’s rhetoric against the Jews.
The AfD, which in recent elections enjoyed the open support of Elon Musk and the US vice president, is a serious contender to come to power in Germany in the near future.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) officially designated the AfD as a “right-wing extremist organization” with xenophobic rhetoric and a program that violates constitutional principles such as human dignity.
Among its proposals is the “remigration” of millions with a history of being migrants, including naturalized citizens.
AfD leaders have downplayed the crimes of the Nazi regime and harshly criticized monuments such as the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, calling it a “monument of shame.”
The AfD maintains that ‘Islam does not belong in Germany’ and proposes measures such as banning the burqa and the construction of new minarets to save ”national identity.”
The party denies climate change and opposes renewable energy policies, advocating the continued use of coal.
It promotes ethnic nationalism. It uses the term “volk” (people) with exclusionary connotations: only Germans.
The AfD proposes a referendum on Germany’s exit from the European Union.
In its program, the AfD criticizes the so-called “deep state” (an alleged network of civil servants, judges, journalists, and politicians) and proposes to “clean up” the institutions, which implies ideological purges.
For the AfD, the German constitution, created after World War II with a strong anti-fascist component, must be reformed or even replaced because it limits “national sovereignty” and “prevents the protection of German cultural identity.”
And the most radical wing (known as Der Flügel) openly calls for the “fundamental reconstruction of the German state” and the elimination of what they call the “consensus party system.” In other words, political pluralism.
That is why last week’s events in Germany, which exposed the disunity and weakness of the democratic parties, were so significant.
This was reflected in the grimace that stiffened former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s neck and stretched her lips when Merz failed in the first vote. This was seen through the glass dome of the Bundestag, designed by architect Norman Foster and built after German reunification.
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