The overwhelming vote by almost 400,000 members of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) in favour of a coalition with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats is good news for Germany, for the European Union and ultimately for Ireland. Three months after an election that saw Dr Merkel fall just short of an overall majority, the EU's most populous and powerful member-state has a stable coalition with an unassailable majority in both houses of the federal parliament.
With Dr Merkel as chancellor and Wolfgang Schaeuble as finance minister, Berlin's most high-profile representatives on the European stage will be unchanged and the new coalition promises continuity in EU policy. The 185-page coalition agreement has little to say about the EU but the SPD is Germany's most overtly pro-European party and its presence in government could herald a greater measure of flexibility in Berlin's dealings with its EU partners.
Saturday's vote, which saw SPD members backing the coalition deal by 76 per cent to 24 per cent, was a remarkable personal triumph for party leader Sigmar Gabriel, who takes over a new Economics and Energy super-ministry in the new government. Mr Gabriel's decision to hold an unprecedented ballot of the entire membership strengthened the SPD's negotiating hand during the lengthy coalition talks so that the party, which won only 26 per cent of the popular vote in September's election, put its stamp firmly on the coalition deal.
Dr Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian allies in the Christian Social Union (CSU) will take most of the cabinet posts in the new government, in keeping with their 41 per cent of the votes in September. But the coalition's policies represent a shift towards social democracy and an enhanced role for the state in economic policy.
None the less, Mr Gabriel faced an uphill struggle in persuading rank and file Social Democrats, who saw their party suffer its worst ever defeat in 2009 after four years in coalition with Dr Merkel, to back the proposal to go back into government. His campaign on behalf of the coalition deal has energised his party, improved the Social Democrats’ popularity as their policies dominated the news and greatly enhanced his own standing. For the first time in many years, the notoriously fissiparous SPD has a clear and undisputed leader and Mr Gabriel, who will be vice-chancellor, will be one of the dominant figures in the new government.
The coalition’s policies include the introduction of a minimum wage for the first time in Germany and a €20 billion spending package for infrastructure, childcare and education. These measures should help to boost domestic demand and economic growth, helping to strengthen the economic recovery in the EU that will be so crucial to Ireland’s fortunes.