Politicians have to win the votes of electorate in a fair competition in the system where Angela Merkel acts

Grigory Yavlinsky web-site, 25.09.2017

Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel will head her country for the fourth time in a row. Does it represent irremovability of power? And what about corruption? And why does Germany have no corruption on such a scale like in Russia then? The reasons are obvious: [Germany has] fair elections, civil control, separation of powers, independent media and independent financing. But there are also some important details.

Politicians have to win the votes of electorate in a fair competition in the system where Angela Merkel acts.

In Vladimir Putin’s system demonstrates a different practice: the Presidential Administration is tasked with making the election “cheerful and attractive” by finding necessarily a female candidate, or a left-wing candidate, or doing some other clownery (as in the Soviet era, when they had to mandatory nominate a milkmaid, a worker and a representative from the youth).

In Angela Merkel’s system after each election, the winner have to conduct a political dialogue with both allies and opponents, and build each time a new coalition, in new and very difficult conditions and do it on the highest professional level.

In Putin’s system there are no opponents or allies. In Putin’s system, there are only minions, tied together by means of fear and corruption schemes.

The retention of power for Angela Merkel means dialogue, compromise, respect for the alternative and the ability to coexist with it, adapt and “get used to”, it is the search and fostering of new partners and new persons in politics, the formation and renewal of the team – both within the party and on the level of the political system in general.

The retention of power for Vladimir Putin means suppression of his opponents, continuous concentration of power in his hands, creation of security cordons around him, burning out of the political field and destroying the alternative.

Angela Merkel is a long-standing leader of the European Union. A leader who, in hard times,  is perceived as a symbol of stability and hope in the modern world. Another thing is that Angela Merkel is very cautious and does not strive to take up the burden of such leadership. But the situation can develop in such a way that this will have to be done. After all, nothing good will be achieved in a complex modern world without global vision and global responsibility. In the meantime, we can see no one to rely upon, except for Angela Merkel, either on the continent, or in Albion, or beyond the ocean…

Moreover, the main feature of the recent elections to the Bundestag is the high vote for right-wing populists, the supporters of the “again policy”, i.e., the ideology which helped Donald Trump to win the elections in the US and Brexit supporters to succeed in the United Kingdom.

Judging by what happens in the country of the victorious Brexit and the country of victorious Donald Trump, the new populists fail to bring anything constructive or anything significant (or even insignificant) into politics. However, meanwhile the American political system has managed to cope with its president. I think that the German system will also cope with AfG.

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And finally, the turnout of 76.5 per cent in the German elections without “cheating”, stuffing in of fraudulent ballots and falsifying indicates of the responsibility of the society for the country and its future.

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