European vote a test case for Germany's general election (Feature)

By Helen Maguire Jun 1, 2009, 5:08 GMT

Berlin - Eyeing the campaign posters this spring, Germans could be excused for thinking the country is gearing up for September's general election.

The European elections on June 7 are overshadowed by the build-up to September 27, when Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat alliance (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) hope to break free of their governing grand coalition.

Both parties are eyeing up new alliance partners amongst the opposition Free Democrats (FDP), Greens and the Left Party.

In Germany's 'super election year,' political scientist Ulrich Sarcinelli sees the European vote as a 'warm-up event for the other election campaigns.'

Merkel insists this is not the case. 'That wouldn't do justice to the importance of Europe,' the chancellor told German ARD television.

SPD leader Franz Muentefering has a more sobering reason to dismiss such an argument. 'In the German parliamentary elections, the voter participation will be 20 to 30 per cent higher, so it's very difficult to draw predictions.'

Low voter turnout, expected to hover around the 40-per-cent mark, raises questions about the importance of European issues in the Union's largest founding state, traditionally considered to be very pro-European.

'There are no European figureheads and no European topics, so how are you supposed to conduct a campaign?' asked Sarcinelli.

Differences are indeed subtle between the parties' European election pledges, running under half-hearted slogans such as the CDU's 'Us in Europe,' or the Greens' acronym, which translates loosely as 'Whoosh.'

Most parties favour the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, except the Left Party, which has launched a legal appeal against the EU's reform document. The Lisbon treaty still awaits approval by Germany's Constitutional Court.

The CSU, campaigning as the only party to represent Bavaria in Europe, wants to introduce referendums on key EU issues, a proposal which Merkel's CDU opposes.

Both CDU and CSU are against EU enlargement prior to institutional reform, except in the case of Croatia, while most other parties support the principle of enlargement in one form or another.

Merkel has campaigned for Turkey to gain a 'privileged partnership,' but not full EU membership.

The left-of-centre SPD has called for a European 'Social Union,' while the Greens want a pro-environment 'New Deal.' The CDU/CSU are against harmonized EU social policies, as they fear a watering down of Germany's high welfare standards.

The FDP is campaigning to slash farming subsidies, while the Left Party would like to abolish free market competition and nationalize services such as electricity and water, along with 'key enterprises.'

Merkel's insistence that the European elections should not be viewed as a barometer ahead of the September polls may result from the expectation that her CDU/CSU alliance stands to lose seats in Europe.

In a recent survey the CDU/CSU led with 39 per cent of the vote, a drop of 5.5 per cent over 2004. The SPD's share of the vote was estimated at 26 per cent, after a record low result of 21.5 per cent during the last European elections.

Despite conceding that anticipated SPD gains in Europe only carried limited relevance for the German polls, Muentefering said they would give his party a boost.

'It will be interesting insofar as the red (SPD) bar will rise and the black (CDU/CSU) bar will drop - that will be a psychological factor,' Muentefering told foreign journalists.

The focus will fall on Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), which must win enough votes in Bavaria alone to nationally pass the 5-per-cent hurdle required to enter the European parliament.

The CDU's Bavarian sister party experienced a dramatic slump in regional elections last year, while recent opinion polls gave the CSU a nail-biting 6 per cent of the vote.

One record has already been set. A total of 32 parties are campaigning for seats in Europe, with names including the German Pirate Party and the Violets - for spiritual policy.

As a result, Germany's longest-ever ballot paper measures almost a metre in length.