Daily Lessons from Life 01 October 2009

"Friction mounts in Merkel's new coalition Merkel was slammed for different opinions. -> Thu, Oct 01, 2009 AFP

BERLIN, GERMANY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's new coalition partners accused her of riding roughshod in the run-up of talks on forming a government, in interviews published Thursday.


Leading members of the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) slammed the conservative Merkel for staking out policy positions ahead of negotiations on a roadmap for the four-year term, as clear differences emerged.

"It is poor form to say what may not be discussed before the coalition talks have even begun," FDP deputy leader Cornelia Pieper told the daily Bild. "Apparently the Union is quite nervous. Many of them appear to be fixated on what jobs they may get," she said, referring to Merkel's conservative Christian Democrat (CDU/CSU) bloc, which turned in its worst score since 1949 in Sunday's general election.


FDP general secretary Dirk Niebel questioned Merkel's declaration that the main pillars of a reform of the health-care system passed under the previous "grand coalition" government would not be touched.

He said the conservatives needed to remember that they had campaigned for the election seeking a coalition with the Free Democrats, arguing a centre-right government was best-suited to lift Germany out of its worst postwar slump.


Merkel angered the Free Democrats, whose record 14.6-percent score in the election gave the alliance a majority in parliament, by drawing lines in the sand ahead of the coalition talks which are to begin Monday.

In addition to rejecting a rollback of major changes to the health care system, she has also ruled out axeing sector-wide minimum wage agreements or making it easier for firms to lay off workers.


Merkel aims to have a new government in place in time for celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9."

Ms Merkel has been remarkable for sure. Ruling longer than a lot of people would expected her, a lady in Germany, to lead initially.

The democratic process is tested and passed. The consequence of the democratic votes will now be tested. Will there be an effective government that bring the majority what they wanted and be able to explain and persuade them to give up some of the things they wanted that may not be good longer term!

Lessons for me are:

1. democracy is great as it gives everyone the right the vote;

2. as long as everyone does vote with a free hand, the democratic election process met its objective. The test becomes how effective the elected government will be able to lead and create the things that the majority wanted;

3. there is not too much pork barrel politicking here in seems. Or at least, not as obvious as some young or even established democracies. How to balance the interests of all the parties involved without sacrificing the universal principles of 'rational and unemotional' will be challenging. It is not going to be a pretty year or two still for Germany economically. So, saving jobs and creating jobs that produce things that can sell at a price that turn in a profit for the businessmen after deducting cost of labour, materials, etc will be major challenge.

I wish Ms Merkel and her coalition partners all the best in steering Germany through this revival. We certainly don't want a repeat of the Hitler's years when German were united in poverty and took the wrong solution for their economic ill then!