German Politics at the Gates of Hell

Or: The Democracy Dilemma

The Bundestag. Img: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0

What a week in German politics! The Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, turned into a bearpit on Wednesday and Friday. Usually a place of pedestrian discussion and procedure, it rivalled Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons in noise level and ferocity this time.

The rhetoric used by otherwise sedate politicians was of biblical proportions. Quite literally. The leader of the parliamentary faction of the Social Democrats (SPD), Rolf Mützenich, accused the leader of the opposition conservatives, Friedrich Merz, of opening ‘the gates of hell’ and likened the proposal Merz had tabled to the ‘fall of man’.

This drama was the result of Germany’s politicians having manoeuvred themselves into a catch-22: What Merz had proposed is what the majority of Germans want. Yet, in asking their elected representatives to vote on it, he’s breached a post-war taboo designed to safeguard democracy. Let that sink in for a moment.

So this is what the parliamentary showdown was all about: Merz tabled a non-binding motion on Wednesday for parliament to state its intent to control Germany’s borders more tightly, repatriate illegal immigrants and put irregular immigration on halt. Merz’s conservatives are in opposition and don’t have the numbers to pass this by themselves. It passed anyway because the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) voted with them. Even if an actual draft law didn’t pass on Friday, the motion getting through on Wednesday was a scandal. For the first time in Germany’s post-war history, far-right votes were required by a mainstream party to get something approved in parliament.

But while voting on a motion with the AfD may be seen as a threat to democracy, not doing what the majority of the population want is surely also a threat to democracy?

It’s a very German dilemma and one I’ve been thinking and talking about all week. So I thought I’d share my headache with you, dear ZEITGEIST readers.