Europe’s newspapers agreed on Tuesday that Germany was in an ”awful mess” after a weekend election left it politically adrift rather than at the helm of a long-anticipated economic recovery.
Editorials in Germany focused on the likely makeup of a new government, with many facing the dreaded possibility of a so-called grand coalition — or ”marriage of elephants” — between the country’s main rival parties.
But even as Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), and his conservative challenger, Angela Merkel, of the Christian Democrats (CDU), continued to claim a mandate after Sunday’s vote, some papers said the best solution might be for them both to step aside.
”There is one solution, as horrible as it may be: the grand coalition,” wrote the left-leaning Frankfurter Rundschau daily, reflecting the mood in several German papers.
Regional daily Westfalische Nachrichten called it a ”marriage of elephants” but said it might only be possible if both Schroeder and Merkel gave up their claims to leadership.
The top-selling Bild newspaper reported that Schroeder may be prepared to forgo a chance to remain chancellor if Merkel also agreed to stand aside.
In Berlin the Taz daily agreed: ”The only solution is for the two pretenders to retire. Schroeder would at least have blocked Merkel from becoming chancellor and hence triumphed one last time.”
While German papers pondered the country’s immediate political outcomes, elsewhere the focus was on the wider implications of the deadlock for the European economy and the European Union.
The word ”paralysis” was echoed across the continent’s front pages, not only for Germany but for the European Union as well.
In France, the conservative Le Figaro said ”all signs pointed toward a grand coalition” which would leave the next German government ”without the authority it needs to tackle radical reforms”.
”The fear is that Germany will become ungovernable,” it warned, adding that the election threatened to make Europe ”more paralysed than ever” after the rejection of the draft EU Constitution in France earlier this year.
The Sun, Britain’s biggest selling daily, said ”Germany is in an awful mess” and noted the domestic ramifications for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his ambitions to encourage reform of the European economy.
”Angela Merkel’s dismal failure to send Gerhard Schroeder packing spells doom. It’s the worst possible result for Tony Blair.
His bid to drag Europe into the 21st century is in tatters,” it said.
In Rome, headlines screamed ”Paralysis”, ”Duel” and ”Arm Wrestle”, with La Stampa concluding: ”After France, it’s Germany’s turn to fall victim to itself”.
Far from a grand coalition, Le Soir daily in Belgium decried Germany’s ”grand confusion,” while in Spain the centre-left El Pais echoed the theme of ”paralysis”.
”After the French ‘non’ to the European Constitution, which bore similarities to these German elections, the political paralysis of Europe is deepening,” El Pais said.
The Vremia Novosti daily in Moscow said the election was a body blow for those in Europe who were waiting for Germany, the continent’s largest economy, to lead it out of economic stagnation.
”Even if the parties are able to form a coalition, German politics will be subject to incessant compromise and no serious reforms will be possible,” it warned.
Newspapers in Greece and Turkey looked at the fallout for Turkey’s bid to join the EU, which Merkel opposes.
A columnist for the Turkish Milliyet newspaper saw ”an invisible, sacred hand protecting Turkey”, after Merkel’s worse than expected performance appeared to bury her policy of ”privileged partnership” instead of full EU membership for the Muslim country.
But the Turkish papers aside, Europe’s media pundits were overwhelmingly gloomy about Germany’s political prospects.
”None of the governmental solutions opened up by Sunday’s elections can result in anything other than disaster,” said the right-leaning Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias. – Sapa-AFP