On Sunday, German voters elected their most business-friendly, pro-American government in decades. Angela Merkel — the leading grown-up on the world stage — returns as chancellor.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union (her party’s Bavarian branch) actually lost a few seats, but the pro-business, Washington-friendly Free Democrats roared back to life and more than made up the difference.
On the other hand, the Social Democrats — Germany’s establishment lefties — took their worst beating in post-war history. The hard-left Greens fell, too. Only the nut-case Left Party gained a bit of ground, thanks to protest votes.
Moscow’s unhappy, but resigned. The Kremlin misses former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who did all he could to save Saddam, put Russia’s interests above Germany’s own — and then went to work for a Russian energy company after leaving office.
Turkey’s angry. No-nonsense Merkel’s no multicultural mama. She doesn’t want the Middle East dragged inside the EU.
President Obama may believe that Islam shaped America, but Merkel — a Lutheran pastor’s daughter who, as a teenager in East Germany, chose her faith over Communist Party privileges — realizes that Germany’s had enough trouble without dragging Mohammed into things. And her German supporters are sick of being told they have to indulge Muslim immigrants who behave barbarically.
Al Qaeda’s disgusted. The terrorists released a series of videos prior to the balloting, warning Germans to vote for surrender, or face the consequences.
The videos backfired. Germans aren’t crazy about their Afghan involvement, but they don’t like threats to scratch the Mercedes.
Washington’s relieved. Even though Obama doesn’t share Merkel’s deep suspicion of socialist pie-in-the-sky, he knows she won’t desert him on Afghanistan. And she’ll give our president top-cover on terror (I didn’t want to renew the Patriot Act, but Tante Angie made me do it. . .).
Germans don’t want to give up their government benefits — but they understand that benefits have to be paid for. They voted for honest accounting and fiscal discipline. (We may be carefree, but they’re serious about their national debt.)
Germans trust and respect Merkel (despite her maiden-aunt appearance, she has a doctorate in quantum chemistry). Her party got a mild spanking because, hampered by a “grand coalition,” it didn’t act tough enough. Germans want her to continue as chancellor — with a free hand to get things done. In their political system, a vote for the Free Democrats was a vote to strengthen Merkel.
This election’s sob story is the fall of the Social Democrats, whose share of the vote collapsed to 23 percent. Once upon a time, the party produced the likes of Helmut Schmidt and Willy Brandt — men willing to stand up to the Kremlin. But after the Berlin Wall came down, the socialists lost their way, kneeling to Moscow, backing business deals with dictators and pandering to immigrant minorities at the expense of Herr Meier (the German Joe Six-pack).
Now Merkel’s Christian Democrats and her Free Democrat partners have a mandate for leadership backed by conservative majorities in both houses of parliament. This election extends the Euro-trend toward common-sense conservatism that began with the election of President Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s most pro-American president ever.
If the trend continues, we may even get a pro-American president in Washington.
Ralph Peters’ new thriller, “The War After Armageddon,” deals with an Iranian nuke attack on Israel.