TIMES ONLINE – Analysis: For the past four years conservatives and liberals have been quietly expressing fears that Ms Merkel was a Social Democrat in sheep’s clothing, or at least in a woollen trouser suit.
Now the Chancellor has a chance to prove otherwise. The result will be a subtle change of Germany’s position in Europe.
Fuse the election manifestos of the two parties — the Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats — into a single programme and you come up with a mainland European version of progressive conservatism: there is concern for social justice, a taste for financial regulation, but also a commitment to open markets, deregulation and (when market conditions permit) privatisation.
But while some of that may suggest an affinity with a possible David Cameron government, relations with the Tories are likely to remain frosty because the new German Government is firmly committed to the Lisbon treaty.
The new Berlin Administration will almost certainly see its main friend in Europe as Nicolas Sarkozy; the Social Democrats had some reservations about the French but these are not shared by the Free Democrats.
The main loser of the new government alignment could well be Turkey. The Social Democrats have been a champion of Turkish entry into the European Union for the past 11 years, first in alliance with the Greens, and latterly in Ms Merkel’s Grand Coalition.
Now the Social Democrats are in opposition and Ankara will be faced with sceptical governments in Paris, Berlin and Rome. >>> Roger Boyes | Monday, September 28, 2009
