Hurray, a new chancellor is here!
What unfolded in the Bundestag yesterday was a farce: election losers forming a coalition. A repeatedly failed lobbyist who wants to become chancellor, and parties that lack any sense of reason for their original ideology, voted together to throw the rules of democratic decency overboard in favor of a will to power. The bottom line: Friedrich Merz is now finally chancellor, and Germany has a government.
By Serdar Somuncu
By Serdar Somuncu
But is this really good for us? And what can we expect? Above all, it seems as if this arbitrary coalition is already no longer capable of acting. It has long been questioned and is more fragile than any government before it. Never before in the history of the Federal Republic has a chancellor had to be elected in a second round of voting. Likewise, no party has ever participated in a government that achieved the worst election result in its history. But now we are almost back where we were before the election. The desperate attempt to prevent the AfD from gaining strength through propaganda or legal maneuvers is increasingly turning into an own goal, and the more the so-called bourgeois center engages in this dangerous experiment, the greater the risk that it will ultimately not even have the possibility of forming governments beyond the will of the voters. What has happened in recent months has been unique. First, the Bundestag, which was voted out of power long ago, is convened to rush through a law that will burden future generations with years of debt.
Then they throw all their campaign promises overboard and sell it as pragmatism, form a coalition with their fiercest rival, and then, on top of that, get themselves clumsily elected Chancellor. At the same time, they tell the population that democracy is worth protecting, while almost ridiculing its very foundations. The demos, or people, has long since given up believing that their vote can make a difference. And so, precisely through such maneuvers, disenchantment among the population grows ever greater, and the belief that politicians will eventually see reason and base their decisions not on whether they guarantee them power, but rather on whether they benefit the people, is dwindling.
But the people are no longer united either. We are a divided nation, split into a know-it-all minority that dictates what to do to an insecure and disoriented majority. Whether it's the issue of the war in Ukraine or the processing of the coronavirus crisis: social discourse in this country has long since become impossible without categorically excluding those who think differently. This is truly a disgrace, and we are increasingly edging closer to a dictatorship of opinion that destroys anyone who deviates from its line. Even art is increasingly losing its courage to fight this because, compromised by shitstorms and existential fears, it prefers to remain silent rather than maintain its will for independence. In this sense, the new government perhaps even symbolizes the attitude we need to endure all this. It's a mixture of not giving a damn and everything will be fine in the end. But in reality, it's nothing more than mere hope, which may ultimately drive us into the arms of those who are driving us into the abyss with their plans.
07.05.2025
©Serdar Somuncu
The new book - Lies - Cultural History of a Human Weakness
*Serdar Somuncu is an actor and director
Then they throw all their campaign promises overboard and sell it as pragmatism, form a coalition with their fiercest rival, and then, on top of that, get themselves clumsily elected Chancellor. At the same time, they tell the population that democracy is worth protecting, while almost ridiculing its very foundations. The demos, or people, has long since given up believing that their vote can make a difference. And so, precisely through such maneuvers, disenchantment among the population grows ever greater, and the belief that politicians will eventually see reason and base their decisions not on whether they guarantee them power, but rather on whether they benefit the people, is dwindling.
But the people are no longer united either. We are a divided nation, split into a know-it-all minority that dictates what to do to an insecure and disoriented majority. Whether it's the issue of the war in Ukraine or the processing of the coronavirus crisis: social discourse in this country has long since become impossible without categorically excluding those who think differently. This is truly a disgrace, and we are increasingly edging closer to a dictatorship of opinion that destroys anyone who deviates from its line. Even art is increasingly losing its courage to fight this because, compromised by shitstorms and existential fears, it prefers to remain silent rather than maintain its will for independence. In this sense, the new government perhaps even symbolizes the attitude we need to endure all this. It's a mixture of not giving a damn and everything will be fine in the end. But in reality, it's nothing more than mere hope, which may ultimately drive us into the arms of those who are driving us into the abyss with their plans.
07.05.2025
©Serdar Somuncu
The new book - Lies - Cultural History of a Human Weakness
*Serdar Somuncu is an actor and director
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