I’m much less impressed than John about the results of the German election, which will see an SPD-CDU-Green coalition government replaced by a CDU-SDP coalition government. Merz is just Merkel in trousers.
I do note one parallel between German and American political trends. Here in the U.S. we’ve noted trends in the gender gap among young voters. I like this latest chart to come my way:
Turns out much the same is now true in Germany:
Although I was hoping for an AfD victory, I don’t join John in describing it as a conservative party at all. It was purely for its disruptive effect that I wanted them to win. One way to understand why the AfD is not likely a conservative party is hinted in this chart (recall that nearly all of AfD’s strength is in the old East Germany):
Here are the results, for reference:
P.S. There’s also this, which is why I think AfD will continue to gain strength as the German government fails to make any serious reforms.
