German voters more focused on social issues

European issues are not agendas of this election, Professor Eckart D. Stratenschulte, director of the European Academy Berlin yesterday told a group of international journalists, who have been  invited by the Federal Foreign Office to observe the election.
Stratenschulte said German politicians do not have big debates about international issues except the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland or AfD) initiated by a group known to be anti-euro, whose goal is the abolition of the euro in its current form.
He admitted that Merkel is very much criticised for keeping a low profile on foreign issues, which was seen as a very successful strategy in the last election in 2009.

"That means you don't excite people and don't mobilise the others," he said.
"You don't win or lose on international questions, in particular not in Germany. Germany plays a decisive role in European countries at the moment but the point is Germany does not want to play that role," he said.
He went on to say that a survey showed 40 per cent of Germans wanted their country to be like Switzerland and 29  per cent wanted it to be like Sweden.
"The German population is not very much interested in living in a country that exercises much international influence except for football, " he said.
According to Stratenschulte, voters won't be dissatisfied with the grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD).
The two leading candidates used to work together in 2005-2009 and they cooperated  quite well, he said.
"If that's the only possible outcome, Merkel may say why not? But it could be a disaster for the SPD. There will be harsh discussion in the party ," he said.
He added that SPD chancellor challenger Peer Steinbrueck used to say that he would either become the chancellor or not be a part of the government.
“However, Steinbrueck was not speaking for his party,” he said.
In Stratenschulte’s view, only two options remain for government coalition parties. First, CDU and the Greens or the grand coalition of CDU and SPD, which he believes the SPD will accept.
The latest polls showed CDU and its sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) have steady support of  39-40 per cent of the vote; SPD has 25-26 per cent; and the Greens have 9-10 per cent.
Merkel's current junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats (FDP), may not get the five per cent, the threshold in order to be represented in the Bundestag.
The two main parties once made clear statement that they will exclude the Left Party, which is polling  nine per cent, from their coalition partners, Stratenschulte said.
However, one cannot overlook the Germany's upstart anti-euro party. The AfD, founded by a professor who believes the single European currency has been a disaster for Germany, got five percent in an opinion poll by the independent INSA institute released yesterday.
Pollsters say that the entry of an AfD bloc in parliament would rob Merkel's coalition of a governing majority based on current estimates of its number of seats.
Such an outcome would most likely force her to form a left-right "grand coalition" with SPD, a German media said.