獨 Merkel loses local elections ahead of his retirement… Behind the’mask scandal’

The German ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU), led by Prime Minister Angela Merkel, is behaving as a’mask scandal’. With the election of Prime Minister Merkel’s successor this year ahead, the’red light’ lit up for the re-creation of the regime.

On the 14th (local time) of Germany’s’Super Election Year’, the CDP has been confirmed to be defeated in the two state legislature elections. According to the results of the exit survey of the German ZDF broadcast that day, the approval ratings of the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Baden-Wurttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, respectively, were more than 8 percentage points ahead of the CDP.

Green Party leaders, including Zandra Decher (right), chairman of the Baden-Wurttemberg parliamentary assembly in Germany, are cheering as they anticipate a victory in the parliamentary election on the 14th. [로이터=연합뉴스]

In Baden-Württemberg, the Green Party gained 31.5% support, up 1.2 percentage points from five years ago. On the other hand, the CDP’s approval rating fell more than 4 percentage points to 23%. Accordingly, the Green Party’s current prime minister, Vinfred Crechman, is expected to smoothly extend the term of office.

The far-right party’Alternatives for Germany’ (AfD) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) are expected to win 12.5% ​​and 11.0%, respectively, and the Social Democrats (SPD) 10.5%. ) It is now possible to form a red, no, and second’traffic light coalition’ according to the symbolic colors of the Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and each party apart from the coalition.

In the Rhineland-Palatinate state as well, the Social Democratic Party recorded 33.5% of the votes and the CDP recorded 25.5% of the votes, confirming the victory of the current Prime Minister Malo Dreyer, who has been in power for eight years. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only one out of 16 German states that has maintained a traffic light alliance consisting of the Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Green Party for 5 years.

[ZDF방송 출구조사 결과 갈무리]

German media predicted that the CDP recorded votes in this election would be at the lowest level since World War II. Regarding this, CMO Secretary-General Paul Chimiak expressed disappointment, saying, “It is because of the personal popularity of the incumbent governors,” but “definitely not a good result for the CMO.”

The cause of this defeat is the’mask scandal’ involving CDP politicians. It was revealed that passport politicians intervened in the government mask procurement project and received large sums of money from companies. The Democratic Party’s Rep. Nicholas Roebel and its sister party, the Christian Socialist Party, Rep. Georg Nuslin, are currently under investigation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left), and Armin Rachett, vice-president of the Christian Democratic Party and head of North Rhine-Westphalia, wave their hands at a party event held in Muenster in 2017. [EPA=연합뉴스]

As a result of a survey of 2378 German citizens on the 4th to 10th by Cantaga, a German polling research institute, the national approval rate of the Citizens and Knights Party fell to 31%. At the beginning of this year, it exceeded 35% and the approval rating in the 40% range was over, but it fell to the lowest level in a year. The Green Party recorded 19%, the Social Democratic Party 16%, the far right party 11%, and the LDP and Left 8% each.

“This election has shown that a coalition without the CDU is possible,” said Horst Zehofer, the Minister of the Interior, the influential candidate of the Social Democratic Party’s next prime minister. If the approval rating continues to fall like this, it is the intent that a government can be formed without a coalition of the Citizens and Knights Party. Currently, the Citizen-Kisadang Alliance is in alliance with the Social Democratic Party.

Germany will hold elections for the Saxony-Anhalt state legislature on June 6, and soon after the elections for the federal House of Representatives on September 26, and three local elections in Berlin, Mecklenburg-Popommer and Thuringia. The new House of Representatives will elect a new prime minister, who will succeed Merkel in 16 years. The Associated Press said, “If this is the case, we will be in a situation where we cannot guarantee whether the Democratic Party leader Armin Rachet will be able to stay.”

Reporter Kim Hong-bum [email protected]