German Election

It's on the news in Czech Republic quite a lot, and would be probably be more so if not for the fact that the country's in campaign mode for its own election in October. It makes sense that Czechs would be more interested than other countries, since Germany is a massive country just next door and by far the largest trading partner - accounting for about a third of all imports and exports.The German elections should be seen as significant for most Europeans, though, since Germany is the largest country in the EU, and thus has the biggest say in the European Council.I'm always confused by these sorts of responses: You don't get to vote in Germany, but it doesn't mean you're forbidden to be interested in what happens there.Edited by caffeine, : Ballsed up tags

The question is more whether Merkel will still be chancellor, which we don't know yet, since the FDP are out of the Bundestag, and whether a new government would mean a significant change in European policy.I think the import of this election for Europe is a bit exagerrated, though, since the main opposition party don't really differ from the CDU on European policy. The only way we'd expect to see a change is if some sort of left-coalition is established between the Social Democrats, Greens and Die Linke. This would be a coalition with a very small majority, so the SPD would need to make some significant concessions to the left. For that very reason, though, I doubt such a coalition would happen.

I think everyone with a passing interest in politics has heard of Angela Merkel. I suspect our colleagues over the pond were being slightly facetious. The idea that Germany dictates economic policy to Europe is nonsense which it gets tiresome to hear. What does it take to block a German proposal in the European Council? France, Britain, Poland and Malta*. That's it. So if Germany is leading an overwhelming large coalition of EU members with some proposal or other, she can still be blocked by a few dissenters, because that's how the EU's designed.When Germany gets its way, it's because other countries agree with them. It's because they've got France, Britain, Poland and most of the smaller nations to sign up for their proposal. That's not dictating - that's leading.But the main thing to notice is that Germany does not always get its way. The banking union wasn't Germany's idea. The German government disagreed with most of its powers. But there was nothing Germany could do about this, since they have no power to dictate terms and have to go along with the majority when it goes against them.*With the understanding that this is just one arbitrarily constructed combination of nations - there are many that would do.

This is hugely overstating the case. It has to be remembered that, as well as being the most powerful state in the EU, Germany is the fourth largest economy in the world by itself, and the European country which exports the most outside Europe. German policy certainly does have a significant impact on the world, with the integrated economies we have today.

He said he spoils his ballot in protest at the political class. It was hardly cryptic.

CS has a point. Even if you do take an interest and read all the articles you can find, we still don't really have any decent grasp on how different economic policies in Germany will impact the world economy - much as some commentators would like to pretend otherwise. It's easy to look at what has happened and concoct a story that explains it, sounds very convincing, and might well be true. When it comes to prediction, however, we're pretty much shooting blind. If I'm being honest, I think my interest in these things is more of a hobby. I watch elections a bit like sporting events. I love elections to the European Parliament because the scale, the sheer number of parties in involved and the varying local and national issues that all go in to make up the result. I think I'm not the only one, either.