There is something more than electoral data in yesterday's elections in Germany. There is a problem of leadership decay. I read with dismay the economist (which landslides more and more towards superficiality), which dedicated its cover to Frau Merkel electing her as European leader maxima. Anyone who has followed the German electoral campaign in recent months can only shudder. When I talk about Germany, my beloved Heine always comes to mind, exiled to Paris by the Philistines, those Philistines whom Merkel personifies to the core. It is true that I met her in Bayreuth when, like me, she was enthusiastic about Wagner – while here we have to put up with the bunga-bunga – and therefore she is a person of solid culture, not by chance educated in East Germany whose scientific fortune he devoted passionately. But there is no doubt that during the electoral campaign he did not utter a word on major international issues or, what am I saying!, on the destinies of Germany in Europe, and therefore of the euro, austerity policies, etc.
Of course his opponent was no less, indeed. In recent days it has made obscene vulgarity its forte, trampling on one of the most glorious political traditions in the world, namely that of the German social democracy of Franz Mehring, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Oscar Lafontaine… And forgetting, social democracy , the economic positions of one of its great minister of the economy which was, between the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies of the twentieth century, Karl Schiller, not to mention Helmut Schmidt, the greatest chancellor in post-war German history after Adenauer.
Merkel campaigned like a housewife, sweeping all problems under the carpet. And to think that there is plenty of dust: the toxic assets of the Deutsche Bank, the ruined balance sheets of the Landesbänken, and above all the breakdowns that the austerity policy trumpeted from the rooftops is also bringing to Germany with the shrinking of the internal market, thanks to the much acclaimed Schroeder reforms which solved the problems in the short term, but which affected the heart of the German production model, i.e. supporting the policy of high wages and therefore of high consumption thanks to the increase in labor productivity which thus became for entrepreneurs an indispensable necessity.
With world trade falling and Europe decaying, the problems for Mrs Merkel in the coming years will be dire. Yes, because she is destined to govern, whatever coalition is formed after this electoral result. I repeat, the CDU and the CSU, whatever the coalition, are destined to tip the balance: neither are the Social Democrats, nor are the Greens, let alone the liberals who do not enter the Bundenstag. Angela Merkel has achieved an extraordinary result, exceeding all expectations. Certainly she will give stability to Germany because she is the architrave of any majority government. Good news for the Teutonic lands, but bad news for Europe.
However, everything is uncertain, beyond the court of the election results. In fact, in politics the saying "never say never" applies. It could also be that Frau Merkel is frightened because, as the policy of the communist youth of the GDR has taught her, the people must be given low-term cuisine in the short term, while the long and medium term must however be the daily bread of the elites. A person who loves Wagner cannot ignore this. An unscrupulous person like the one who delivered her master Kohl to the judiciary with a memorable article on the Faz where he essentially accused him of corruption, this he cannot fail to know. All the more so when Alternative Fuer Deutschland, with its anti-euro slogans, is on the threshold of being admitted to Parliament, while the liberals are excluded! And Alternative Fuer Deutschland is a constant presence that can gradually erode part of its electorate.
Much will therefore depend on the pressure that the countries affected by Teutonic austerity will exert on Frau Merkel in the preparation phase for the new government, ie in the phase of consultation of the parties. Italy, France and Spain can and must use common pressure in the sense of convincing the Germans that the entire European pact must be rewritten if we do not want the landslide to overwhelm us all, including Germany, Merkel or no Merkel. Let us look beyond the elections and let us not lose hope.
