“The Perspective of Politics in Germany After the Regional Parliamentary Elections in the Federated States of Lower Saxony and Hesse” with Mr. Robert von Rimscha as Guest

Washington, D.C.

Robert von Rimscha

Having the regional parliamentary elections held in the federal states of Lower Saxony and Hesse as background, Robert von Rimscha, speaker of the Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP), put forward the changes occurred within the political sphere in Germany. Before an audience comprised by more than 80 international attendees, he talked about the significance entailed by such regional parliamentary elections towards the federal parliamentary elections in 2009, and clarified the complex problems to be faced in the integration of both länder’s governments.

Robert von Rimscha began his exposition with a brief overview about the political environment reigning in both states. He recounted that both large-sized federal states of considerable economical relevance have their political roots in the social-democrat stream, therefore the outstanding outcomes achieved by the civil sector 5 years ago result invaluable. Nevertheless, it involves in turn the difficult task of advocating such result.

By analyzing the election campaign in both länder, von Rimscha focused his audience’s attention on the huge differences between both heads of government. While Christian Wulf, head of government of Lower Saxony, conducted an election campaign notoriously relaxed, integrationist, and oriented to a presidential rule, his opponent ended up in being rather little charismatic. In Hesse, the horizon was completely different. The head of government, Roland Koch, focused his election campaign on the juvenile crime topic, and tried to shape himself as a hardliner; his main approach was especially around the immigrants issue and closely linked his campaign to the tragic event occurred in the Munich subway, in which a 76-year retiree was seriously injured by two foreign youngsters. Summarizing, the head of the government highlighted the need of a reform in criminal law and, above all, of reducing the criminal liability age. However, after ambiguous electoral mottos (like “Stop Ypsilanti, Al-Wazir, and the Communists!”) appeared, Koch gained a controversial, harmful image among the citizens.

Claus Gramckow

Meanwhile, his adversary –who, even within the regional environment, was relatively unknown up to a few months ago- achieved a notorious position by promoting a wide repertory with a social-democratic and left-wing tendency with persistent demands of an overall minimum wage, thus being able to gradually achieve higher positions in the surveys. Maybe the more significant setback received by Koch occurred when the mass media gradually revealed that his electoral demands did not match his conduction of the government in a state that, at federal level, holds the first place as to delayed lawsuits.

At the end of the day, Christian Wulf’s slight loss in Lower Saxony is easy to explain and the result –except for the entry of the left wing into the regional parliament– was really little dramatic; however, the obvious fall of the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union, CDU) in Hesse and Koch's victory with only a minimum of advantage above Ypsilanti entail serious consequences for the integration of the government of Hesse, as well as generally for the party system. Short after the electoral Sunday, the heated spirits have already cooled down in Hesse; however, the situation is extremely complicated as to possible coalitions, since the classical ones have been ruled out.

Von Rimscha concluded with the following assumption: before the elections to senate in Hamburg are held, there are no foreseen outcomes as to negotiations around an eventual coalition in Hesse, and –juggling with all the possibilities– the emergence of a great coalition under the command of the new head of government from the CDU is extremely likely, with Roland Koch being simultaneously and strategically transferred to Berlin. With the entry of the left-wing party in two Western German states, a 5-party system was in turn established in the German parliaments, which will hinder coalitions of a traditional nature in the future.