Two Party Politics is Bad, but This Is Definitely Worse

Press gloom on election stalemate
BBC NEWS

German papers worry about the future of social and economic reform in the wake of the inconclusive Bundestag election.

Some papers see the result as a personal setback for Christian Democrats' (CDU) leader Angela Merkel, though others suggest the future may yet belong to her.

There is little enthusiasm for a 'grand coalition' between the CDU and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD).

The business paper Handelsblatt ran the headline "Coalition chaos in Berlin".

A remarkable election campaign has ended with a fatal result for Germany," it says. "Never before in post-war German history has a Bundestag election been so clearly about a decision for or against further economic reforms", it adds.

But after the elections it is difficult to imagine a reform scenario for Germany, the paper goes on.

Although economic restructuring will continue, it says, "things cannot move forward without political support".

"We cannot afford to stand still," the paper warns. "Courageous politicians in the next government coalition will have to fight to ensure that even the slightest scope for reforms is utilised."

A lot of people, imperfect themselves, for some odd reason expect perfection from a government. Failing to see that, they call upon American voters to create third and fourth parties so that they may have more alternatives. They are entitled to their wishes, but I have yet to see a multi-party system (multi- in this case meaning more than two) that functions even half as well as our own flawed system. From where does the logic arise that, if two mildly corrupt political parties don't work, then three or four (or more) will work better? As far as I am concerned a less diverse but semi-functional system is much preferable to the chaos that Germany, France, and Britain (among others) have. Coalition governments are a disaster.

Full Story: German Elections

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