Germans vote Sunday to elect new parliament and Angela Merkel’s successor | Globalism

Olaf Schultz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) It tops the polls, followed by Armin Laschet of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)With the support of Merkel. Annalena Baerbock, do Green Party, who came to lead the voting intentions, should be in third place.

But, according to AFP, the disagreement became more acute in the last stage between the Social Democrats (SPD), with 25% of voting intentions, and the Conservatives (CDU/CSU), who rose to 23% in the poll. The institute’s latest edition, released Thursday.

The name of the new chancellor, as the German prime minister is known, should not be confirmed until a few weeks later, when negotiations between the allied parties are over.

This is because none of them is likely to win an absolute majority, and will certainly rely on a coalition to form a new government. This is how Merkel governs from the CDU with the support of the SPD and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU).

If confirmed as the most voted out of the three, the centre-left Schulz should have the Greens as a natural ally, and it is very likely that he will be able to strike a deal without much difficulty with the centre-right. Christian Democrats as well.

He is considered a member of the moderate wing of the SPD and has already indicated that he does not rule out talks with any other party, with the exception of populist socialists from Die Linke and Labour. Far Right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Olaf Scholz, a 63-year-old lawyer specializing in labor law, has been a member of the Social Democratic Party since 1975 and was first elected to the Bundestag, the German parliament, in 1998. He was also Minister of Labor and Mayor of Hamburg.

Extremely pragmatic, he was once the target of jokes when he was called “Scholzomat,” a joke in his name and the word “robot,” suggesting that he would be more a machine than a human.

The SPD candidate benefited mainly from the fall of Armin Larchet, who had everything to replace his party colleague Merkel, with relative ease.

But in the face of accusations of plagiarism in a book written in 2009 (reporting that the publication “clearly contains errors for which I am responsible”), he has had to confront the fact that the governing state, North Rhine-Westphalia, is focusing on one of the highest rates of Covid cases. -19 in the country, and is also considered ambiguous when it comes to submitting its proposals.

In addition, while visiting an area of ​​his state badly affected by floods, he was caught laughing at a joke while German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was delivering an official speech in solidarity with the victims.

Analina Barbock, at only 40 years old, could be the youngest person to hold this position in history Germany. She continued to lead voting intent polls, but became the target of a series of criticisms and demands, and admits that she made “mistakes” in her campaign.

She was accused of inaccurate biography, late payment of taxes, and use of slang considered racist. On all occasions he quickly apologized but his image was damaged.

The candidate also became the most common target of disinformation in this election, with an estimated 70% of attacks spread through fake news directed at her, with about 30% directed against Armin Laschet and almost none at Olaf Schultz.

The model for selecting a German head of government is complex and involves several steps. It begins with the voters voting twice on the same ballot paper and ends with the newly elected Parliament’s approval of the name of the new chancellor (See here the process details).

In the first vote, voters select a candidate for the position of representative for each of Germany’s 299 constituencies. Each party presents its opponent, and there is the possibility of independent participation as long as they have at least 200 signatures of supporters.

In the second vote, the voter chooses the party of his choice. It does not necessarily have to be the same as the candidate’s union on the first ballot. That is, if someone chooses a CDU representative to represent their district, they can easily vote for the SPD party on that second choice if they prefer that acronym over the other as a whole.

For this second vote, each party refers to the list of political leaders who can represent each of Germany’s states in parliament, with at least 299 seats. In this case, the seats are distributed proportionally according to the percentage of votes for the abbreviations in the elections. There, each association occupies the corresponding seats according to a predetermined list order.

After counting and distributing seats in Parliament, the party with the most votes seeks a coalition to nominate a name for the position of chancellor. This name is the name of the party leader, which is determined by the abbreviation itself usually before the vote (this year, Scholz, Laschet or Baerbock are the luckiest).

Parliamentarians have one month to take up their positions and then start putting the chancellor’s name into effect from the coalitions. It is very difficult for a single party to get more than 50% of the seats in the German parliament, so the most likely scenario is the formation of party coalitions.

Finally, the nominated name was passed on to the President of Germany, currently Frank-Walter Steinmeier. It has a ceremonial role, does not participate in the government, and only certifies the nomination and returns it to the House of Representatives. Then, parliamentarians, in a secret ballot, formally choose the new German chancellor.