The far right is set to make strong gains in two regional elections in eastern German on Sunday, potentially upending 30 years of rule by the two ...
BERLIN: The far right is set to make strong gains in two regional elections in eastern German on Sunday , potentially upending 30 years of rule by the two main parties and hastening the break-up of Chancellor Angela Merkel's national coalition.
AfD election posters tell voters to"Complete the change started in 1989". With the word"Wende", used to describe the fall of East German Communism, the posters say:"1989 2019. Wende 2.0. Be there when history is made!" A collapse of the coalition could trigger a snap election or result in a minority government - unappealing options for stability-loving Germans. National polls put the conservatives first, with the Greens close behind and the SPD trailing neck and neck with the AfD.MERKEL LIABILITY?
A big area of discord within the coalition is a major climate protection package and its financing, with some in the SPD wanting to ditch Germany's long-standing balanced budget policy, an unacceptable prospect to most conservatives even as the economy cools. After some 2 trillion euros of transfers from West to East, inequalities persist between the regions, although the gap is narrowing. In 2018, economic output per capita in the East was 81.9per cent of the national average compared with 103.1 per cent in the West.
Even if the CDU remains the biggest party, Premier Michael Kretschmer will be weakened and coalition building tricky given his party's antipathy to the Greens, also set for big gains.
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