THE ELECTION by the German parliament last night of Christian Wulff to the presidency will be widely seen as a pyrrhic victory for a deeply enfeebled Chancellor Angela Merkel. Although a parliamentary rebellion against her candidate had been expected, its scale has been a source of shock. Instead of the vote of confidence the chancellor had hoped for, the third-round-victory presages yet more trouble in the months ahead as this dysfunctional ruling coalition limps on.
The secret joint ballots of both houses, the directly elected Bundestag and the Bundesrat, representing the 16 states, saw the return to the fold on the third ballot of many dissenting members of her majority after some 44 had initially signalled their displeasure in the first round. The dissidents were almost certainly both from the ranks of her own Christian Democrat Party (CDU) and its Federal Democrat (FDP) allies, and for reasons that have as much to do with disillusionment with the chancellor herself as with her lacklustre presidential nominee, Christian Wulff.
In theory the centre-right coalition has a 21-vote majority in the 1,244-seat parliament. But this is not a happy coalition. Radical FDP members sit most uncomfortably at the table with the CDU’s Bavarian right-wing sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Since it came to office in September, the government’s ratings have fallen by a quarter, largely at the expense of the FDP, as it squabbled over its austerity and tax programme, nuclear power, health reform, conscription, and Merkel’s fumbling response to the Greek crisis.
The chancellor herself is reproached within her own party for being aloof, for long-fingering important decisions, and for sidelining potential successors like Wulff (51), the state premier of Lower Saxony and a longserving but dull party member. Once tipped, however, as a future chancellor, his presidential nomination is seen by many as her way of removing him from the political centre stage.
The Social Democrats’ nomination of the distinctly more presidential Joachim Gauck (70) for the largely formal presidency was tactically well calculated to exploit her difficulties. Non-partisan but conservative, he was a pastor in former East Germany with a broad appeal for his stand against the communist regime. From 1990 to 2000 he ran a commission investigating the role and records of the Stasi secret police. That record cost him votes from the hard-left Die Linke, but he served his purpose. Merkel was the real loser.