Hans Kundnani, author and former head of the Europe Programme at Chatham House, discusses Germany's political landscape, highlighting the prevalence of grand coalitions and the implications for its democracy.
To better understand the state of German politics, I recently spoke by phone with Hans Kundnani, the author of multiple books about the country, and the former head of the Europe Programme at Chatham House, a British think tank.
During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed how Merkel’s once vaunted legacy set her successor up to fail, how the German far right is distinct from its European counterparts, and whether the lack of disagreement among Germany’s major political parties is a threat to its democracy. What do you see as Germany’s central political problems? And do you view these as sui generis, compared to other countries experiencing political instability? What you have in German politics is a permanent grand coalition. When Angela Merkel became chancellor, in 2005, there had only ever been one grand coalition in the history of the Federal Republic. Since then, grand coalitions have become the norm. She led a grand coalition for three of her four terms in office. Under Scholz, we had this so-called “traffic light” coalition, which is not technically a grand coalition because it doesn’t include the Christian Democrats, but it’s functionally a grand coalition. And that’s partly to do with the way that it includes parties from across the political spectrum. You have the Social Democrats on the center left, you have the Greens, who at least on some issues are a left-wing party, but then you have the Free Democrats, which is very much a right-wing party. But there is such a consensus in the center ground of German politics that basically all the parties that might be in government agree on nearly everything. The differences are really very minor, which is very different from the United States. So I think of the Scholz government as a continuation of the Merkel consensu
GERMANY POLITICS GRAND COALITION MERKEL LEGACY CONSENSUS
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