@article{2018:hilmer:die_bundes,
title = {Die Bundestagswahl 2017: GroKo IV – ohne Alternative für Deutschland},
year = {2018},
note = {For the election on September 24, 2017, Angela Merkel’s second Grand
Coalition had a remarkable record to present to German voters: stable
economic growth, secure jobs and unemployment at a rare low . However,
both coalition partners were dealt a blow: CDU/ CSU and SPD received
their worst results since 1949 . Whilst citizens did acknowledge the
country’s increasing wealth, they were still critical of its unequal
distribution . Additionally, many voters were anxious about their
financial outlook and the threat of old-age poverty in the mid and
long run . Nonetheless, the public’s general mood had been mainly
positive until the summer of 2015, when it started turning in light of
an increasingly dramatic refugee situation . Despite an initially wide
support for Merkel’s decision to accept Syrian refugees stranded in
Budapest into Germany, scepticism and outright opposition grew fiercer
as the number of refugee arrivals kept going up . At the end of the
day, SPD voters disappointed by a government policy perceived as
socially unjust shifted towards the Left Party, the Greens and the
FDP, while an even higher number of former CDU/CSU voters turned
towards the FDP and the AfD - out of protest against refugee policies
. With an AfD score of 12 .6 percent, a party right of the CDU/CSU,
managed for the first time not only to enter the national parliament,
but also to achieve third rank . A new multitude of parliamentary
parties (six instead of four) was not the least of factors
complicating coalition building . At first, odds seemed high for
CDU/CSU, FDP and the Greens to form a coalition but after weeks of
difficult negotiations, programmatic and strategic discrepancies
turned out to be too wide . Thus, the only option remaining was to
re-establish the very Grand Coalition so severely punished by voters:
a government on probation, arguably .},
journal = {ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen},
pages = {372--406},
author = {Hilmer, Richard and Gagné, Jérémie},
volume = {49},
number = {2}
}