While most of Europe is pressuring and berating the German government desperately for an energy embargo on Russia and arms sales to Ukraine, the tripartite government in Berlin appears to be struggling to keep up.
That’s because three-way is difficult.
Germany has historically been governed by two-party coalitions (never more than two) with the Conservatives or the Social Democrats as the dominant partner – until that changed in 2021.
For the first time, a three-party coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP took the helm in Berlin. Sure, at the country level there have been three paths before, but being at the head of the largest EU state is a completely different thing, and it shows.
If a quick look at Germany from the outside leaves the impression that the four-month-old government is hesitant to make decisions and is being thwarted by internal struggles, that’s because it is.
Three-way governments are more than the sum of their parts, for better or for worse. Because every governing party is divided into at least four parts: the ministers in the government, the parliamentary group, the party itself and then the ministers at state level.
Multiply that by three and you have a wild mix of different interests, decision-making processes and, frankly, different proximity to Russia.
Just think of the iron SPD woman Manuela Schwesig, who literally let Gazprom dictate government policy in the Nord Stream 2 state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The more gears there are on a machine, the more likely it is to jam.
There have already been domestic disputes against the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Scholz is stepping on the brakes,” complained Anton Hofreiter, member of the Greens.
Within the SPD, the foreign policy spokesman Michael Roth did not place the blame solely on the Chancellor and implicitly attacked the SPD whip and self-confessed pacifist Ralf Mützenich.
And the pacifist wing within the SPD has criticized what it describes as “hasty” calls for heavy arms supplies to Ukraine.
This, in turn, provoked a sarcastic reaction from the FDP’s defense policy chairwoman, Agnes Maria Strack-Zimmermann, who described such a position as “impressive” 55 days after the start of the war.
Amid all the hubbub, Roth was so dismayed by his party’s stance that he gave his Twitter account to a Ukrainian activist in a desperate attempt to stir up some movement in his party.
The government apparatus in Berlin is obviously not as well oiled as we are used to from the unofficial EU boss.
With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Germany is moving slowly while Russia wages a bloody war against Ukraine.
Divided between pro-business and pro-union interests between parties opposed to an embargo on Russian energy and amid pacifist wings of the party warning of arms shipments, Scholz appears to be going it alone.
Scholz is famous turning point had seen how the Chancellor hardly informed his coalition partners and largely bypassed the parliamentary apparatus.
But the machine cannot be avoided forever. Turning and sometimes jamming its many, many wheels is the essence of (German) democracy.
Anyone who hopes that the Germans will finally act should be warned. Similar to private life, the political triad is difficult to handle and rather chaotic.
The abstract
The growing shortage of skilled workers could soon threaten productivity in Germany, and Europe’s largest economy is now scrambling to make the most of well-educated Ukrainian refugees as Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its third month. EURACTIV Germany reports.
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Views are those of the author.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Benjamin Fox/Nathalie Weatherald]
