After a five month delay, way paved for Chancellor Merkel to form government

Berlin: The path for Chancellor Merkel to form the government for the fourth time has been cleared finally. Chancellor Merkel finalised the agreement with the ‘Social Democrats’ party for the formation of the government. Although this has invoked a positive reaction from the European Union (EU) there is resentment in the German media and the political circles.

Chancellor Merkel’s ‘Christian Democrats’ and ‘Christian Social Union’ had lost their majority in the general election last September. The ‘SPD’, previously a partner, took a stand not to form an alliance with Merkel. Therefore, Merkel started negotiating with the other parties. After failure of these talks, there was a renewed effort to negotiate with the ‘SPD’ on fresh terms.

There were indications that Merkel will have to stay away from power as the talks failed twice in four months. Chancellor Merkel had said that if the negotiations on the appropriate issues were not successful, she was prepared to face fresh elections. These developments in Germany created a lot of unease in the EU. It was evident that the uncertainty in Germany forced the EU to take a defensive stand in the ‘Brexit’ issue.

Finally, Chancellor Merkel decided to form the government after coming to a political compromise with ‘SPD’. It is evident that Chancellor Merkel has bowed down to the ‘SPD’ conditions on financial as well as some important issues. The ‘SPD’ has been allotted the important portfolios of Finance, Foreign affairs, Law and Workers.

This compromise by Merkel is facing severe criticism from the coalition partner leaders as well as the German media. ‘Christian von Stetten of the ‘CDU’ has claimed that the portfolio allotment in the government is a blunder. The leading German daily ‘Build’ has criticised that ‘Merkel’ has gifted the government to ‘SPD’ only to be the Chancellor at any cost.

While there is resentment at internal level in Germany, the EU has welcomed Merkel’s decision. The ‘Economic Commissioner’ of the EU, Pierre Moscovici, and President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Junker, both have expressed their satisfaction saying that the formation of a government in Germany is good news.