1. Angela
Merkel Makes History in German Vote, but So Does Far Right
The New York Times SEPT. 24, 2017
Chancellor
Angela Merkel of Germany at the Christian Democrats’ headquarters in Berlin on
Sunday.CreditAlexander Koerner/Getty Images
BERLIN
— Angela Merkel won a fourth term as chancellor in elections on Sunday, placing
her in the front ranks of Germany’s postwar leaders, even as her victory was dimmed by
the entry of a far-right party into Parliament for the first time in more than
60 years, according to preliminary results.
The
far-right party, Alternative for Germany, or AfD, got some 13
percent of the vote — nearly three times the 4.7 percent it received in 2013 —
a significant showing of voter anger over immigration and
inequality as support for the two main parties sagged from four
years ago.
Ms.
Merkel and her center-right Christian Democrats won, the center held, but it
was weakened. The results made clear that far-right populism — and anxieties
over security and national identity — were far from dead in Europe.
They
also showed that Germany’s mainstream parties were not immune to the same
troubles that have afflicted mainstream parties across the Continent, from
Italy to France to Britain.
“We
expected a better result, that is clear,” Ms. Merkel said Sunday night. “The
good thing is that we will definitely lead the next government.”
She
said that she would listen to those who voted for the Alternative for Germany,
or AfD, and work to win them back “by solving problems, by taking up their
worries, partly also their fears, but above all by good politics.”
But
her comments seemed to augur a shift to the right and more of an emphasis on
controls over borders, migration and security.
Despite
her victory, Ms. Merkel and her conservatives cannot lead alone, making it
probable that the chancellor’s political life in her fourth term will be
substantially more complicated.
The
shape and policies of a new governing coalition will involve weeks of
painstaking negotiations. Smiling, Ms. Merkel said Sunday night that she hoped
to have a new government “by Christmas.”
The
center-left Social Democrats, Ms. Merkel’s coalition partners for the last four
years, ran a poor second to her center-right grouping, and the Social Democrats
announced Sunday evening that the party would go into opposition, hoping to
rebuild their political profile.
But
the step would also make sure that the AfD stays on the political sidelines and
does not become the country’s official opposition.
The
Alternative for Germany nonetheless vowed to shake the consensus politics of
Germany, and in breaking a postwar taboo by entering Parliament, it already
had.
Alexander
Gauland, one of AfD’s leaders, told party supporters after the results that in
Parliament: “We will go after them. We will claim back our country.”
To
cheers, he said: “We did it. We are in the German Parliament and we will change
Germany.”
Burkhard
Schröder, an AfD member since 2014 from Düsseldorf, was ecstatic. “We are
absolutely euphoric here,” he said. “This is a strong victory for us that has
weakened Angela Merkel.”
Up
to 700 protesters gathered outside the AfD’s election night party, chanting
slogans like “All of Berlin, hate the AfD.”
“It’s important to show that it’s not normal
that a neofascist party got into the German Parliament,” said Dirk Schuck, 41,
a political scientist at the University of Leipzig.
While
both Ms. Merkel and the Social Democrats lost significant voter support from
2013, her victory vaults her into the ranks of Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, the only postwar
chancellors to win four national elections.
The
election is a remarkable capstone for Ms. Merkel, 63, the first East German and
the first woman to become chancellor.
2. Shinzo
Abe of Japan Calls Early Election, as a Rival Party Forms
The New York Times SEPT. 25, 2017
Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan at the United Nations General Assembly in New York
last week. His handling of the North Korean crisis has bolstered his approval
ratings.CreditTimothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
TOKYO
— Seizing on anxiety over tensions about North Korea and the opposition’s
weakness, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan called Monday for an early
election next month.
Mr.
Abe’s announcement came just hours after Tokyo’s popular governor, Yuriko Koike, officially introduced a
new national party, taking advantage of momentum built over the summer, when a
local party she founded drubbed Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democrats in a metropolitan
election in Tokyo.
With
Mr. Abe hoping to consolidate his power so he can push a revision of Japan’s pacifist
Constitution and run for a third term as leader of the Liberal
Democrats, Ms. Koike’s announcement is likely to add uncertainty to what had
looked like a sure victory for Mr. Abe.
When
his aides first began airing the possibility of an early election last week, it
was clear he had the advantage against the chief opposition Democratic Party,
which has been in disarray since the July resignation of its leader, Renho
Murata, and several recent defections.
In
announcing plans to dissolve the lower chamber of Parliament, the House of
Representatives, and call for a snap election next month, Mr. Abe said that an
aging society and a tense situation with North Korea were the country’s biggest
problems. “To respond to the problems as leader of the nation, that’s my
mission as prime minister,” he said.
He
added: “Although it will be a difficult election, in order to overcome these
national problems, I have to listen to the people’s voice.”
Mr.
Abe is taking advantage of his rising public approval ratings, which have
recovered from a nadir reached over the summer. After his Liberal Democratic
Party lost to Ms. Koike’s party, Tomin First, in Tokyo elections in July, Mr.
Abe appeared at risk of losing the chance to become Japan’s longest-serving
prime minister.
But
Mr. Abe’s robust rhetoric after North Korean missiles recently flew over Japan has helped distract
voters from a series of scandals that dogged him all summer.
At
the same time, the economy is showing stronger-than-expected growth, bolstering Mr. Abe’s
bid to continue leading the country at a time when the main opposition is so
weak.
Yuriko
Koike, the first female governor of Tokyo, has announced a new national party
to be called Kibou no To, or Party of Hope. CreditKo Sasaki for The New
York Times
“He
thought politically this is the right time to call the election,” said Ichiro
Fujisaki, a former Japanese ambassador to Washington, “because his party had
some problems, but the other party’s problems are a lot bigger.”
Polls
show that close to two-thirds of the public disapproves of Mr. Abe’s
accelerated timetable, given that he is not legally required to call an
election until December 2018. But over the weekend, a Kyodo News poll found that voters
who planned to cast their ballot for Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democrats outnumbered
those who would vote for the Democratic Party by more than three to one.
Yet
with 42 percent of those surveyed still undecided, Ms. Koike’s wild card of a
party is likely to capture some of these voters. The governor herself will not
be running for a lower house seat, but she will use her popularity to campaign
for her party’s candidates.
In
announcing the new party, which will be called Kibou no To — Party of Hope —
Ms. Koike said that she wanted to increase female participation in society and
work toward an energy policy that eliminated nuclear power and reduced carbon
emissions to zero. She said she wanted to debate the revision of the Constitution,
but she questioned the wisdom of focusing exclusively on the pacifist clause
that is at the center of Mr. Abe’s ambitions.
Ms.
Koike called into question Mr. Abe’s timing in calling for an election. “I see
a big question mark on calling an election in the midst of the North Korean
situation being so critical,” she said during a news conference on Monday. “I
wonder if it’s appropriate in terms of crisis management for the country.”
3. Kurdistan’s Dangerous Vote on Independence
Iraqi
Kurds celebrate at a pro-referendum rally in Erbil, Iraq, on
Monday. CreditIvor Prickett for The New York Times
The
referendum on independence that Iraqi Kurds held on Monday was unwise,
dangerous and very understandable.
Unwise,
because it raised high and probably unachievable hopes among Kurds not only in
Iraq, but also in Iran, Turkey and Syria, the countries where they live.
Dangerous
because those yearnings trigger multiple alarms in one of the least stable
regions on earth.
And
understandable because few people have dreamed of independence for so long, at
such cost and with so little success.
Even
before full results were in, there was little doubt the Kurds had voted
overwhelmingly for a separate state. It is hard not to sympathize with that
longing, especially given the brutal suppression of Iraqi Kurds under Saddam
Hussein. Since the 1991 gulf war, the five million Iraqi Kurds have created a
semiautonomous Kurdistan region whose rich oil and gas resources have supported
a relatively peaceful existence. Kurdish military forces, the pesh merga, have
played a major role in the fight against the Islamic State.
Massoud
Barzani, the president of Kurdistan, as the Kurdish region in Iraq is known,
has said the vote will not lead to an immediate, unilateral declaration of
independence, but to the opening of negotiations with Baghdad and consultations
with neighboring states and other powers.
Yet
Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and the United States,
as well as the European Union and the United Nations, all tried to pre-empt the
vote. Iraq has no intention of losing rich oil fields. The White House declared the referendum
“provocative and destabilizing,” and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis traveled to
Kurdistan last month to argue that the referendum would be a distraction from
the fight against ISIS. Turkey, Iran and Syria fear that their restive Kurdish
minorities will join in secessionist demands. Only Israel, with a history of
close ties to Kurds and hopes for an ally against Iran, has declared support
for a Kurdish state.
In
any case, the vote was held. There is a new and volatile reality that cannot be
denied. All sides — the Kurds, their neighbors, Washington and all the others
involved — must avoid any action that could prompt violence. Then, urgent
efforts must begin to channel newly fired passions into what room remains for
diplomatic maneuvers. The United States, whose forces have long protected Iraqi
Kurds and fought alongside the pesh merga, should be at the forefront of that
search.
