Tag: Beige

A Grand Coalition is not healthy and should be rejected. Parties need to adapt or be swept away We’ll find out soon whether Germany’s Social Democrats will join their Christian Democrat rivals in yet another Grand Coalition. Angela Merkel says that such a deal is necessary to bring “stability” to both Germany and Europe. But “stability” here is simply another word for “no change”. Friends of Germany, and of German democracy, should hope that the deal is rejected. It is not healthy, in any country, for most of the parties to be in office most of the time. In Germany, the two big parties have shared power for eight of the past 12 years, propping each other up like two exhausted boxers after eight rounds. Before that, the centrist Free Democrats would generally decide which of the two larger parties to support in office, often shifting their allegiance halfway through a parliament. Supporters...