Defeat on the Elbe
An election in Hamburg underlines the domestic weakness of Angela Merkel
THE German chancellor, Angela Merkel, may be the West’s de facto leader in the Ukraine crisis, a quasi-hegemon in the European Union and unassailably popular in opinion polls. But her centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has growing weaknesses, as Hamburg, one of Germany’s 16 federal states, showed on February 15th.
The CDU was the big loser in a regional election that had several winners. The Social Democrats (SPD), led by a colourless but reliable mayor, Olaf Scholz, triumphed with 45.7% of the vote and will stay in power, probably with the Greens. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a Eurosceptic party founded in 2013, got into its first assembly in west Germany after breaking into three eastern parliaments. Even the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) returned, with 7.4%.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "Defeat on the Elbe"
From the February 21st 2015 edition
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