Defeat on the Elbe

摘要

The German chancellor, Angela Mer-kel, may be the West's de facto leader in the Ukraine crisis, a quasi-hegemon in the European Union and unassailably popular in opinion polls. But her centre-right Christian Democratic Union (cdu) has growing weaknesses, as Hamburg, one of Germany'si6 federal states, showed on February 15th. The cdu was the big loser in a regional election that had several winners. The Social Democrats (spd), led by a colourless but reliable mayor, Olaf Scholz, triumphed with 45.7% of the vote and will stay in power, probably with the Greens. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a Eurosceptic party founded in 2013, got into its first assembly in west Germany after breaking into three eastern parliaments. Even the liberal Free Democrats (fdp) returned, with 7.4%.