German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a news conference after video discussions with heads of federal governments about the vaccination strategy at the Federal Chancellery on March 23, 2021 in Berlin, Germany.
Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
LONDON – A third wave of the coronavirus pandemic has accumulated more political problems for Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ruling party, CDU, as the country approaches the federal elections later this year.
Germany was initially highly praised for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, deftly handling the country’s initial outbreak, isolating cases and tracking contacts, while its modern, well-equipped hospitals helped keep fatalities low.
A year later, the situation is very different, with Europe’s largest economy facing a third wave of infections, an increasing number of deaths and accusations of poor management of the health crisis directed at the government.
On Wednesday, Merkel was agitated by reversing a plan to block the country during the Easter holidays, saying she had made a “mistake”. This came after criticism from health experts and business leaders, who said the proposal could do more harm than good.
The concession comes as experts reflect on how Germany is dealing with the pandemic and look at how ruling parties, Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union, can be affected when Germans vote in September’s federal elections.
Merkel’s party, CDU, has already done poorly in the last state elections, signaling that it could be punished again at the end of the year by voters who err towards the center-left Social Democrats and, in particular, the green environmentalists, whose support increased sharply.
“Poor management hurts,” commented Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Banco Berenberg, in a note on Thursday.
“Last March, a skilful response to the pandemic sent support to Chancellor Angela Merkel and her CDU / CSU almost in the stratosphere.” But he added that although Germany handled the first wave of the pandemic better than most other developed countries, “this is no longer the case”.
“Confusing political changes and slow progress in vaccination have now undermined public confidence in the capacity of the CDU / CSU, which has led the government through most of post-war history, including the past 15 years, to lead Germany through the crisis” he observed.
Schmieding noted that a bribery scandal involving members of the CDU-CSU Parliament resonated with the public, with polls showing a drop in support for the CDU-CSU back to pre-pandemic levels. “Merkel’s turnaround on an ‘Easter strike’ could worsen the situation, ” he added.
What is wrong?
A drop in the popularity of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, comes as doubts remain about who will be in charge of the German government in September, when Merkel’s final term ends. CDU-CSU has not yet informed which candidate will be nominated for the election.
Merkel’s turnaround on Wednesday was unusual, as she has long been considered a steady hand in times of crisis. The move showed that the German government is also feeling the pressure of having to make difficult decisions amid a rapidly evolving pandemic situation.
After the turnaround on Wednesday, Merkel rejected the opposition’s demands to ask Parliament for a vote of confidence in her government.
Germany has recorded more than 2.7 million cases and 75,498 deaths so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, much less than those in the United Kingdom. This compares to 4.3 million cases in the UK and more than 126,621 deaths.
The country had recently begun easing blocking measures, allowing schools to reopen in February and some non-essential stores to admit customers again earlier this month. Like other European nations, it was betting on the launch of coronavirus vaccines to allow it to slowly reopen its economy, the largest in Europe.
Germany is not alone in having to adjust its plans; Italy must reimpose a national block during the Easter period for the second year in a row, while Paris and other parts of France are again under a partial block.
The public’s tolerance for new blockages may be increased if vaccine implementation is planned in the EU. But, as a whole, immunization programs across the block reveal a varying rate of vaccinations.
EU leaders met virtually on Thursday to discuss whether to block EU vaccine exports, while other countries like the UK are moving ahead with their programs. Earlier on Thursday, Merkel defended the EU’s strategy of purchasing vaccines as a bloc, rather than individually.
“Now that we see that even small differences in the distribution of vaccines cause major discussions, I would not like to imagine if some member states had vaccines and others did not. That would shake the domestic market at its core,” she told German lawmakers. of the EU summit, Reuters reported.
She also suggested that the region’s vaccination problems had more to do with lower production capacity than lack of orders.
“British production units are manufacturing for Great Britain and the United States does not export, so we have what we can do in Europe,” she said. “We have to assume that the virus, with its mutations, may be occupying us for a long time, so the issue goes far beyond this year,” he added.