The German Elections 2021: How Critical Will They Be?
Monday, September 20, 2021
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Online Event
12 PM New York l 6 PM Vienna
CEU's Democracy Institute invites all OSUN members to attend a virtual panel on the geopolitical issues surrounding the upcoming German elections.
Angela Merkel's 16 years as chancellor have come to an end. The chancellor, who will have ruled for 5,787 days on election day (September 26, 2021), is leaving the grand political stage. She is no longer standing for election. This is despite the fact that we can assume she would have led the CDU/CSU again to victory in the elections for a fifth time and herself into the chancellorship. There will be a new government and, in all likelihood, no continuation of the "grand coalition" that has become too small for even a minimal winning coalition.
It is relatively certain that seven parties will again enter the Bundestag. However, the coalition formula will be unclear. There is much to suggest that it will be a three-party coalition. This is a first for Germany and perhaps something like a catch-up normalization of German government formation in Europe. Except for the AFD and also the Left, all four bourgeois parties can form coalitions with each. The strategic game is on.
Our panel will discuss the following issues, among others:
There are big issues like climate, pandemic, migration, foreign policy: why does this not lead to an election campaign between ideological/programmatic camps?
How polarized is the party landscape in Germany?
Are the German people afraid of getting a governmental coalition led by the Greens?
Is the decline of the mainstream parties in Germany continuing?
Has the right-wing-oopulist wave stopped?
Will the political system become more unstable and what does it mean for Europe?
What would a green-left-liberal government mean for foreign relations with the United States, Russia, and China?
Discussants:
Sheri Berman is a professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University
Carsten Q. Schneider is Research Affiliate at CEU Democracy Institute, Professor of Political Science at Central European University (CEU) and MA Program Director of the Department of Political Science
Thomas Poguntke is Professor of Comparative Political Science and Director of the Institute for German and International Party Law and Party Research at the Heinrich Heine University of Dusseldorf, and Speaker of Council at the European Consortium for Political Research
Brigid Laffan is Professor Emeritus at European University Institute, Florence (EUI)
Chair:
Wolfgang Merkel is Senior Research Fellow at CEU Democracy Institute and Professor Emeritus at Berlin Social Science Center (WZB)
Join the Facebook event to follow the livestream on the Institute’s Facebook page. No registration is required.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1227031867722770/