[Sim]

It's tradition in Germany -- most new governments got rather bad grades by commentators after its first 100 days. The new CDU/CSU & FDP (conservative-libertarian) coalition, Chancellor Angela Merkel's (CDU) 2nd administration, is no exception.

But this time, the chaos seems especially extreme -- it seems that the "dream team" of conservatives (CDU and Bavarian CSU) and libertarians (FDP) has made a hobby of fighting against each other in public, rather than governing together.

Quote:
Chancellor Angela Merkel's first 100 days in power at the head of a new center-right government following her re-election in September have been marred by infighting on economic and foreign policy and opposition accusations of cronyism and incompetence.

Merkel has been accused by members of her Christian Democratic Union of failing to show leadership, and opinion poll ratings for her coalition of conservatives and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) have been falling ahead of an important regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, in May.

Media commentators say a senior member of the FDP has now added to the general picture of chaos and confusion by reversing one of the only policies the coalition has implemented since it came to power.

Deputy FDP leader Andreas Pinkwart, editorial writers say, has embarrassed his party and the government by calling for a U-turn on a controversial tax cut for hotel owners. The reduction in value-added tax (VAT) for hotel visits to 7 percent from 19 percent, effective from Jan. 1, represented a windfall for hotel owners and was criticized as a classic case of the FDP serving its core clientele -- prosperous entrepreneurs.

Then a SPIEGEL report last month about a big donation to the FDP from a hotel owner provoked damaging accusations that Merkel's government can be bought. The Finck family, which owns a majority of the Mövenpick hotel group that runs 14 hotels in Germany, donated €1.1 million to the FDP in the run-up to the September general election.

Pinkwart diverged from the FDP's line by telling SPIEGEL that the tax cut amounted to a "bureaucratic monster" and should be reversed. "Good politics corrects itself when a law doesn't work in practice," Pinkwart said in the interview published in the latest issue of the magazine. The new system of taxing hotel accommodation was too complicated, Pinkwart said. The lower rate of tax will be charged for overnight stays but the higher rate of 19 percent will remain in force for hotel breakfasts.

"Dilettantism or intent -- the implementation by the Finance Ministry has created a bureaucratic monster," said Pinkwart, the deputy governor of North Rhine-Westphalia. He said the hotel tax cut should be suspended and revisited as part of a planned wider reform of the tax system. Pinkwart added that he wasn't happy with the first 100 days of the new government. "The members of the Berlin coalition must learn to trust one another and to remain faithful to their shared principles," he said.

North Rhine-Westphalia governor Jürgen Rüttgers, a member of Merkel's CDU, said he agreed with Pinkwart. Media commentators say the FDP and parts of the CDU are panicking because their opinion poll ratings are falling ahead of the North Rhine-Westphalia election, and that both parties have cut a poor figure in the last 100 days.


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The "dream team" Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (FDP)?


It seems the voters blame especially the libertarian FDP: After they had won 14.6% in the September election, an all time high, polls now suggest only 8% or 7% would still vote that party -- losing around 50% of your supporters within 100 days is quite a trick.

As mentioned above, there are elections upcoming in the largest German state, Northrhine-Westphalia, in May. This state used to be a stronghold of the center-left opposition SPD for decades, but fell to the conservative-libertarian coalition in 2005.

This is interesting, because losing that state -- as current polls suggest -- would mean the CDU/FDP coalition has no longer a majority in the 2nd chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat (state chamber). The possibility of a coalition between conservative CDU and the left-liberal Green Party in that state is being discussed -- which would be the first coalition of that kind in a large state (the Greens used to be partner of the center-left Social Dems).

Minister for the Environment, Norbert Röttgen (CDU), has already started flirting with the Greens: Against the FDP's declared goal of reversing the nuclear power phase-out that had been installed by the former SPD/Green government, he said nuclear power should not continue longer than 8 years maximum. Chancellor Merkel (CDU) now backed him in this struggle against the FDP.

Chaos between the "dream partners" after 100 days in office, and interesting new coalition options ahead -- there were times when politics were more boring in Germany.