Merkel’s
‘crown princess’ tries to win back Rhineland
Merkel’s
CDU and her SPD ‘grand coalition’ partners have a lot riding on
their candidates in Rhineland-Palatinate.
By JANOSCH DELCKER
3/11/16, 5:35 AM CET
BERLIN — For the
first time in the history of German politics, two women face off in a
state election Sunday that will serve as a referendum on Angela
Merkel’s policies — and a measure of the relative strength of the
two partners in her ‘grand coalition’ government.
Malu Dreyer, a
Social Democrat (SPD), and Julia Klöckner of Merkel’s conservative
Christian Democrats (CDU), are neck-and-neck in the southwestern
wine-producing state of Rhineland-Palatinate, one of three German
states holding elections Sunday.
With both candidates
at 35 percent, neither Dreyer, the incumbent state premier, nor her
challenger Klöckner, are pulling any punches, even though the CDU
and SPD are coalition partners in the federal government.
“Rhineland-Palatinate
can do better. We deserve a change,” Klöckner said in a televised
debate last week.
Dreyer, in an
interview with NTV, touted what she described as her proven
leadership qualities: “I am a clear-thinking, analytical and
reliable woman. I can make tough decisions, but I also have an open
heart. I stand for cohesion in the state, and Mrs. Klöckner divides
the state.”
Since Merkel became
chancellor in 2005, women have taken up top government ministries
like defense and labor, a major advance on their longtime relegation
to traditional ‘women’s’ portfolios like the family ministry
that Merkel herself held under the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl.
Women have also
risen to prominent roles in regional politics, with a woman serving
as premier in Germany’s most populous state, North
Rhine-Westphalia, and as mayor of Germany’s fourth largest city,
Cologne.
National interest in
the Rhineland-Palatinate election is heightened by the media’s
fascination with a woman they have anointed as Merkel’s “crown
princess:” 43-year-old Klöckner, who is touted as a potential
future successor to 61-year-old Merkel if she can earn her political
spurs by winning back the state for the CDU, after 25 years in the
hands of the SPD.
Counterintuitive as
it may seem, Klöckner looked set for success until the refugee
crisis — and Merkel’s handling of it — became one of the
hottest issues in the campaign.
Wine queen
The CDU desperately
needs Klöckner to win Rhineland-Palatinate in order to put an end to
a string of state election losses on Merkel’s watch: Of the 16
German federal states, the CDU and their Bavarian sister party, the
CSU, form part of the regional government in only seven.
As recently as
November, Klöckner had a 10-point leader over Dreyer with 41 percent
support in opinion polls. But as hundreds of thousands of refugees
kept pouring into the country, encouraged by Merkel’s open-doors
policy and her “We can manage” slogan, Klöckner and the CDU took
a kicking, losing support to the anti-immigrant Alternative für
Deutschland (AfD).
In panic, Klöckner
drew up her own strategy for the refugee crisis and took issue with
Merkel’s refusal to put a limit on the number of refugees Germany
will take. This was a fatal mistake, according to CDU officials in
Berlin, who believe the candidate’s so-called “alternative plan”
is being interpreted by voters as veiled criticism of Merkel.
The German media
went even further, saying Merkel’s crown princess had deserted her
queen — prompting Klöckner in turn to waste precious time on the
campaign trail pledging allegiance to the chancellor rather than
attacking her rival, Dreyer.
Dreyer saw her
opportunity, and made the most of it: She simply joined her
challenger’s conservative critics, accusing Klöckner of stabbing
Merkel in the back. In party political terms, it was a no-brainer,
since her SPD is behind the chancellor’s welcoming stance on the
refugees, as much as it might disagree on how best to integrate the
new arrivals.
Deputy chairwoman of
CDU party Julia Kloeckner pictured at the annual CDU federal congress
on December 14, 2015 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Thomas Lohnes/Getty
Julia Kloeckner at
the annual CDU federal congress on December 14, 2015 in Karlsruhe,
Germany. Thomas Lohnes/Getty
The CDU candidate
blends a progressive view on social issues with a sometimes
dismissive attitude to immigrants. A student of Catholic theology,
she worked as a food and wine journalist for a decade before being
elected to the national parliament in Berlin in 2006.
In a party which is
still dominated by grey-haired old men, despite Merkel’s influence,
the former “wine queen” — a title awarded annually at the
beauty pageant held by wine producers in Rhineland-Palatinate — has
a broad smile and confidence that makes her supremely effective at
working crowds in the beer tents and wine gatherings.
A progressive on
social issues, meaning that despite her Catholicism she supports
allowing same-sex marriages in church, the CDU candidate speaks out
for gender equality. On the campaign trail, she said the key to
Muslims’ integration into German society was their acceptance of
women as men’s equals. Klöckner said she would not meet an imam
who refused to shake her hand and dismissed refugees who turned down
food served by women, saying: “They have already eaten then, I
guess.”
Ministry for wine
Dreyer is a
challenging opponent.
A 55-year-old,
soft-spoken lawyer and former district attorney, the SPD politician
was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1994 and sometimes uses a
wheelchair.
This may be why
Klöckner visibly holds back when they debate. All the same, Dreyer
has a 50 percent personal approval rating in the state, putting her
far ahead of Klöckner, who gets 30 percent approval. Dreyer is
anything but frail in their debates.
“I am governing
this state with great passion,” Dreyer said in one televised
debate. “Do you actually live here?” she asked Klöckner, who
spent 11 years working in Berlin as a member of the federal
parliament and a deputy farm minister before returning to her native
state in 2011.
With its picturesque
hills and sprawling vineyards, Rhineland-Paletinate is far from the
hustle and bustle of Berlin. The 7th largest federal state, it is the
only one with a ministry for wine growing, though it’s not the only
industry in the export-strong state: BASF has its headquarters there,
in the city of Ludwigshafen.
Klöckner’s long
absence exposes her to criticism that she is only running for state
premier to raise her profile in the big league of politics, with
aspirations to become a federal minister in Berlin — or even
chancellor.
But the SPD has much
to lose in Rhineland-Palatinate: it faces catastrophic losses in the
two other German states up for election on Sunday, and needs Malu
Dreyer to win what party chief Sigmar Gabriel, who is deputy
chancellor in Merkel’s ‘grand coalition’ government, has
described exaggeratedly as the “mother of all battles.”
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