GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel scored a bittersweet victory yesterday when exit polls suggested her Christian Democrats (CDU) won by a nose in Schleswig-Holstein with 30.5 per cent. But a surge in support left the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) on their tail and best-placed to govern.
The CDU had its worst showing in 60 years in the northern state. The SPD has the option of a grand coalition with the CDU or, more likely, a three-way coalition with the Greens and the small SSW, which represents the state’s Danish minority.
“Either way the SPD will play a role in government,” said Torsten Albig, state SPD leader.
In Berlin, CDU and SPD spun the result in the most flattering light. SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel said it was the 10th time state voters voted out a coalition of CDU and Free Democrats (FDP).
After a run of state election disasters, the struggling FDP polled a respectable 8 per cent in Schleswig-Holstein.
“We have managed to turn the tide; it’s a great result in a difficult time,” said Rainer Brüderle, the FDP’s Bundestag chief whip.
Critics say the FDP’s strong showing was down to the popularity of Wolfgang Kubicki, the party’s state leader and a harsh critic of the Berlin leadership.
Either way, yesterday’s result will put wind in the sails of the FDP ahead of next Sunday’s sink- or-swim poll in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to 18 million people.
Surviving political annihilation there would indicate that Dr Merkel’s ailing junior coalition partner in Berlin had turned a corner ahead of next year’s general election.
While the established parties continued their spin, the real election winner was once again the nascent Pirate Party.
The Pirates were founded in 2006 and have long been dismissed as a niche party obsessed with copyright reform and online privacy.
Despite having no formal programme it won 8 per cent of the vote to enter its third state parliament.
Exit poll data for ARD public television suggests that the Pirates, with their demands for universal access to everything from information to public transport, attracted voters in equal numbers from all established parties.
The more voters climb aboard, the higher the shock waves the Pirates are sending through German parliamentary politics.
