Saturday, September 24, 2005

Why an "Ampel" coalition makes sense in Germany Last week's general election in Germany resulted in neither of the accepted groups (SPD/Greens and CDU/CSU/FDP) having an overall majority and being able to form a government. So far, the "Ampel" (traffic lights) coalition of SPD (red), FDP (yellow) and the Greens has been ruled out by the parties concerned. However, I think that this would be a worthwhile combination: The SPD - with Gert Schroeder as Chancellor, to provide the overall leadership and to make sure that social justice remains a key part of german politics. The FDP - with Guido Westerwelle as Finance Minster to provide the economic liberalism that Germany needs to bring itself out of its current economic problems. The Greens - with Joschka Fischer as Foreign Minister to provide an ecological balance to all policy and to help maintain a clear anti-war foreign policy. There are differences between these parties in their support of economic liberalism but over the last couple of years the SPD/Green coalition has accepted that there needs to be a restructuring of German labour laws. These policies have not been sold well to the populace and have been partially saboutaged by the shameful actions of the opposition. So there is already some common ground with the FDP. Surely there is even more common ground between these three parties in their approach to social liberalism. A coalition could therefore be possible. In my opinion, that would be in the best interests of Germany, and in the best interests of the rest of Europe as well. 8:53:46 AM    comment []  trackback []