Two weeks ago, the Federal Republic of Germany celebrated the 15th anniversary of reunification. Despite the effort by the politicians to pound the joyful beats, the country was largely shrouded in gloom. Economic stagnation aside, the cheerless atmosphere was primarily driven by the inconclusive parliamentary elections on Sept 18 that ended in a stalemate between the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Weeks before the outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schrder risked his political career by dissolving the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, all opinions polls had pointed to an overwhelming victory for the CDU, led by Angela Merkel, a right-leaning politician hailing from the now defunct Democratic Republic of Germany. Schrder, in a dramatic fashion, narrowed the seemingly unbridgeable gaps with his rival. The net outcome? Two losers fighting for the chancellorship, as aptly described by the German media immediately after the initial results were known.

Instead of winning the election outright, the CDU registered the lowest percentage of the popular vote in Germany's postwar history, outdoing Schrder by a mere 1%. Although her party still emerged as the largest faction in the Bundestag with 225 seats, Merkel's attempt to tout herself as the German answer to Margaret Thatcher clearly failed, as her immediate challenge came not from the other side of the political divide, but her own party. There has been much bickering and back-stabbing among other party hopefuls who blame her for the narrow win over the SPD.

Three weeks of power struggle and closed-door negotiations finally produced a grand coalition between the CDU and the SPD. Subject to the approval of the new Bundestag, Merkel is set to become the first woman chancellor in Germany's history, as Schrder was forced to come off the horse, having insisted he had been vindicated on account of the razor's thin majority of the CDU.

Lousy loser

By delaying an acknowledgement of his defeat, Schrder may have come across as an egoistic leader and a lousy loser. But one must not underestimate the seasoned politician who once served two terms as premier of Lower Saxony, the home state of Volkswagen. That the SPD has secured a number of important portfolios in the new government, including foreign affairs, finance, health and environment, goes to show that Schrder, by refusing to bow out, has successfully forced the CDU to compromise more than it otherwise would, thereby winning the best deal for his own party. His political acumen continues to shine through even in defeat.

Schrder's exit not only brings the seven-year's New Left coalition between the SPD and the Greens to a close; more significantly, it symbolizes the passing of the 1968 generation, or the 1968er. In the heyday of student movement of the 1960s, West Germany experienced an intellectual shift, as the new generation was deeply skeptical and wary of the prevalent capitalism. Many began to challenge the status quo, and registered vociferously their objection to Bonn's foreign policy that was heavily biased towards the United States.

However, the former Soviet Bloc countries, and East Germany in particular, did not benefit from the sweeping leftist waves either. Prominent West German student leaders, such as Rudi Dutschke and Daniel Cohen-Bendit, did not hesitate in condemning the bloody crackdown of the democratic movement by Soviet tanks in the capital of Czechoslovakia in 1968. To lend their support to the Prague Spring, West Germany's intellectuals joined hands with the anti-Vietnam War forces. Together, they gave birth to the so-called 1968 Movement (die 1968er Bewegung). In making clear that one hegemony did not necessarily check and balance against the other, a new paradigm in the leftist movement was created.
The federal elections of 1998 were widely seen as the coming of age of the 1968ers, as the Schrder-led coalition government also included the charismatic leader of the Green Party Joscha Fischer that is who would shoot to international stardom when he took Germany into its first postwar military mission overseas in Kosovo, followed by another one in Afghanistan. Fischer had made his mark as an effective student leader in the 1970s, and was at the forefront of anti-Vietnam War movement as well as the campaign against nuclear energy. He only regained his leftist credentials when he defied the pressure from the White House and decided against the Iraq War in 2003.

Meanwhile, Otto Schilly, now set to leave the government, is also a product of 1968 who went on to become a lawyer and defended the radical actions of the leftists by suggesting that it was not entirely wrong to fight against gluttonous capitalism with violence. As minister of interior affairs, he made it slightly easier for four million of the 7.3 million foreigners and their children in Germany to obtain citizenship. Ironically, he will be best remembered for introducing tougher measures to fight against terrorism after the bombings in Madrid and London.

Split down the middle

As Germans commemorate the reunification, there is no doubt that the country is again split down the middle politically, as the SPD and the CDU were unable to garner the votes that they desired. Moreover, the revival of the Lefts in the former East Germany and the splendid results of the centrist, pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) go to show that a substantial number of the traditional supporters have lost faith in the two dominant parties.

Although the grand coalition between the SPD and the CDU under Merkel's chancellorship is now a done deal, a recent survey by Der Spiegel however suggests that only half of the respondents are warm to it. This is no surprise.

Thanks to the 1968ers who rebelled against their parents' generation by forcing the country to deal with Nazi history more thoroughly, something that the leftwing student movement in Japan clearly failed to achieve in regard to WWII militarism, Germans are inherently distrustful of too strong a government. They are still mindful of the fact that Adolf Hitler was given his much-coveted chancellorship in 1933 in a coalition between the Nazis and the rightwing parties.

In fact, the massive student movement in 1968 was also a reaction to the left-right grand coalition at the time, formed between the SPD, the CDU and the Christian Social Union, its Bavarian sister party. As far as the radical students saw it, a gigantic government was nothing but a harbinger of dictatorship. Now, compared this to our acquiescence of the so-called power-sharing coalition made up of a dozen or so parties just to display a false sense of muhibbah.

On equal terms

But the proportional representation system adopted in Germany always seeks to curtail the influence of the major parties and ensure the representation of the smaller ones. Over the last two decades, the smaller partners in the successive coalition governments have been influential and decisive in policy-making without compromising on their independence and autonomy.

Without Hans-Dietrich Genscher, an FDP foreign minister, the end of the Cold War and the German reunification could have been procrastinated; had Joscha Fischer not fought alongside Schrder, there might not have been the humanitarian intervention in Kosovo and the phase out of nuclear power stations, scheduled to be completed by 2022.

Hence, the essence of coalition government lies in the fact that all partners deal with each other and run the country on equal terms, with the smaller parties being able to exert their influence and drive their agenda whenever and wherever necessary. Being in government alone is not enough; they must also be in power.

Germans may be deeply divided over the future path of the country. Still, even the darkest cloud has a silver lining. The strong check-and-balance tradition in the Bundestag and an acute sense of history on the part of the German populace are always there to ensure that the political leadership derives its mandate from the people. Meanwhile, the tortuous process through which Merkel achieved her dream of becoming Germany's first woman chancellor will serve as a painful reminder that she is not an Iron Lady after all.