A year of traffic light government: how the opposition sorted itself out

Ex-ministers in the second row, the AfD increasingly shrill and the Left Party preoccupied with itself: Since the traffic light has been in power, the opposition has also had to regroup. Some are still looking for courses.

After 16 Merkel years in government responsibility, the Union had to start all over again in the opposition. Jens Spahn, Julia Klöckner, Andreas Scheuer, Helge Braun – numerous former ministers, ex-group leader Ralph Brinkhaus and ex-chancellor candidate Armin Laschet shrank from “political celebrities” to normal members of the Bundestag. Surprisingly, in the end they arranged themselves largely silently in the second row.

Only one “political acquaintance” was in the spotlight for the Union, Friedrich Merz. Because in terms of media, the parliamentary group is primarily geared towards him. He holds the reins in his hands and sees himself as the chancellor’s opponent. And challenges it regularly.

Merz has certainly revived the culture of debate in the Bundestag. In the general debates, he speaks largely acquitted, regularly seeks to exchange blows with the Chancellor, criticizes him harshly, challenges him. Basic tenor: Olaf Scholz announced a lot, but also missed opportunities.

Merz’ regular attacks have also revealed gaps and weaknesses in the Union. Because if the chancellor leaves his presidential comfort zone in the general debate, he can certainly counter Merz with previous Union failures. Merz is not responsible for this, but 16 years of Chancellor Angela Merkel have left construction sites in many areas. For example in the Bundeswehr. Since 2002, the CDU and CSU have provided five defense ministers. The condition of the troops has therefore not only been disastrous since Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht was in office.

What is missing are own suggestions

Since Merz also knows this, he worked with the traffic light coalition to set up the 100 billion euro special fund for the Bundeswehr. In the end, the leader of the Union parliamentary group and CDU forced a compromise on citizen income. Here Merz the traffic light has also shown that the political power of the Union does not end with the parliamentary group. Because a compromise was only possible after the consent of the federal states governed by the Union.

Merz has filled his opposition role in a constructive way, but above all with loud criticism. What is still often missing are your own suggestions and concepts. And so, even after a year, it is completely unclear how Merz positions himself personally and what gaps in content he wants to close himself. His roughly outlined announcement that he wants to combine economic and climate policy has not been followed programmatically. The Union faction has also remained pale in socio-political terms.

In migration policy, Merz and Co. have sometimes struck right-wing populist tones and sharply criticized the traffic light. Some Union politicians have accused her of “squandering” her German passport. Merz, on the other hand, spoke of “social tourism” in relation to refugees from Ukraine and then had to row back. A dangerous game, because the Union has to find the balancing act between constructive solutions and justified criticism, especially in the migration debate. Because in the migration-political populism competition with the AfD, she has already lost out in the past.

The AfD is part of the establishment

All in all, with Merz for the AfD, the time of simple and unrestrained constant criticism of Merkel is over. Talking only about “old parties” is no longer really credible when you have been a member of the Bundestag since 2017. With the Union on the opposition bench, the AfD has lost its role as the largest opposition faction. In order to penetrate the media, the chronically divided faction has become even more shrill.

Group leader Tino Chrupalla is pursuing a pro-Russian course despite the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The economic sanctions against Putin’s Russia are regularly criticized. They are to blame for inflation and high energy prices in this country. Germany should therefore make an “interest-led foreign policy”.

Translated, this means buying oil and gas cheaply from Putin’s Russia or from the mullahs in Iran, regardless of political and human values. And Chrupalla’s co-chairwoman Alice Weidel speaks of an “economic war against Germany”, which the federal government does not recognize as such. Corona pandemic, Russia, Iran and most recently the World Cup in Qatar: The AfD has to bend as much as possible in order to maintain its unrestricted “being against” permanently.

And so, for example, the contradictory situation arises that in September the AfD MP Beatrix von Storch accused the federal government of doing too little against Islamist mosque associations from Qatar and faction leader Chrupalla met the Qatari ambassador in November to appoint him to the World Cup praise.

To a certain extent, however, this mixture of fueling fears of relegation, “fundamental permanent opposition” and conspiracy theory is apparently still effective, because in surveys the AfD was able to benefit from the uncertain situation.

The left on the way down

The Left Party is different. For the smallest opposition faction, growing poverty, rising prices and a lack of housing are usually key issues, but the party can hardly benefit in the polls. After a year of traffic lights and nine months of war in Ukraine, the party is stagnating in polls around the five percent hurdle.

Also because the parliamentary group only attracts attention because of the conflict between the well-known left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht and the progressive part of the party. The faction is deeply divided, even a break does not seem impossible if Wagenknecht founds her own party after all.

Therefore, after a year of traffic lights, it can be stated that with the CDU and CSU there is only one opposition faction in the Bundestag that should be taken seriously. AfD and left move between fundamental opposition, conspiracy and self-destruction.