Name game—political parties in Germany

Before we all arrived here in Düsseldorf I posted a piece in response to the victory of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) over their rivals, the Rot-Grün coalition (made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Greens) in the state election here in North-Rhine Westphalia. This was a big deal as the SPD had ruled this state continuously since 1966 even when the overall national government was CDU-lead. Furthermore, the loss of control of the most populous Land in Germany prompted Chancellor Gerard Schröder to call for a national election for September 2005, one year ahead of schedule.

All of the parties have now weighed in with their election platforms and the battle lines are set. Polls here still show the CDU (probably with their normal coalition partner, the FDP, Free Democratic Party) with a commanding (although shrinking) lead. So, CDU head, Angela Merkel looks like the odds-on favorite to become the next (and first female) German chancellor.

But here it starts to get complicated. The left wing of the SDP has split off from the main party led by former Schröder supporter and cabinet member, Oscar Lafontaine. Lafontaine forged a coalition with the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS, Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus) basically the former east German Communist Party (SED, Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, or in English, the Socialist Unity Party). The new party dubbed itself the WASG, Wahlalternative Arbeit und Soziale Gerechtigkeit. This can be translated as the “Electoral Alternative for Employment and Social Justice.” The WASG is calling for the maintenance of the current, excellent level of social welfare support (unemployment and retirement benefits and so on) and are opposed to both the Harz IV and Agenda 2010 programs of Schöder’s government. For them, the “S” in SPD is not being taken seriously enough!

OK—so far so good. But the WASG was just too clunky a name to live with and the PDS apparently wanted to distance itself farther from its Communist origins (and all that entailed in terms of historic baggage from the former DDR and the Evil Empire). So—the WASG is now die Linkspartie (the Left Party) or sometimes just die Linke or sometimes die Linke.PDS. Interviews with supporters of die Linke (or whatever) are themselves unsure about the actual name of their party!

Support for die Linke (or whatever) is modest but visible, especially in the eastern Länder that made up the former DDR. Unemployment is higher there than in the rest of Germany and, of course, the folks there were used to an unparalleled social safety net in the form of the paternalistic aspects of the Communist regime. They did not, of course, have any freedom, nor was there much in the way of consumer goods to buy with their guaranteed incomes, but they did have jobs and they did have salaries and benefits and if they filed the proper paperwork, and waited about 12 years, they could buy a Trabant (see photo).

Interestingly enough, along with apparent support for leftists in the east, that is also the part of Germany where the extreme right-wing party, the NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei) has its greatest support. Inasmuch as the NPD are basically Nazis (the Nazi Party itself is illegal in Germany) it is a good thing that their overall support is modest. In the interests of objectivity I feel compelled to report that recently, the attempt by the Germany government to ban the NPD as a Nazi party in all but name, was overturned by the German supreme court, which ruled that they were in fact, not Nazis after all.