Hurricane Over Germany: Coalition on Verge of Collapse, New Elections?

Before the last election in Germany, I mentioned the possibility that it may take a long time for Merkel to build a coalition because of the rise of AfD at the expense of SPD.

In response, a German reader emailed that I should stop talking about things I know nothing of. But here we are.

Hurricane Over Jamaica

Eurointelligence reports a “Hurricane Over Jamaica”.

We are at the moment of maximum danger for the Jamaica coalition. The talks are not going well, and Angela Merkel is astonishingly passive. The committees will conclude their work today, and hand over to the party leaders, who hope to reach a final compromise by tomorrow morning. We still think this is possible, but our erstwhile optimism about a Jamaica coalition coming together is now more muted. We noted a comment by Gerhard Schröder yesterday predicting that Jamaica will either not come together at all or, more likely, fail after one year when the CSU loses the elections in Bavaria – where the party has reigned longer than Robert Mugabe has in Zimbabwe. Schröder expects new elections in 2019, and is calling on his party to get ready.