16 years Merkel: "Dangerous conviction that there is no alternative"

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When the 20th German Bundestag is elected on September 26th, for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic there will be no incumbent candidate for Chancellor.

Angela Merkel's (CDU) term of office will end after around 16 years.

If the formation of the government takes until December 17, Merkel would even land before Helmut Kohl (CDU) in terms of record term in office.

Now the debate about limiting the term of office of the Chancellor has flared up again, most recently through demands from the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock.

“A different kind of leadership is needed,” Baerbock told the “Spiegel”.

In fact, she is not the first to speak out in favor of such a limit before a possible term of office of her own.

Gerhard Schröder (SPD) had also suggested a maximum duration in 1998 before and in 1999 during his first term of office.

In 2005 he ran for a third term himself - and before the 2017 federal election he again advocated limiting the term of office to two terms based on the US model.

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As with Konrad Adenauer (14 years old) and Helmut Kohl (16 years old), Merkel is also accused of being in love with power and tired of reforms at the end of their term of office.

While some recognize stagnation in long terms of office, others see such a long term as a chancellor as a sign of stability.

Will “Kohls Mädchen” outlast its predecessor in the end?

Photo from September 2000

Source: pa / dpa / Peer Grimm

In the Basic Law it says on the election of a chancellor: “Whoever has the votes of the majority of the members of the Bundestag is elected.” There is no provision for re-election.

A change would require the votes of two thirds each of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.

"Democracy is rule for a time"

The Leipzig constitutional lawyer Christoph Degenhart is convinced that a limitation could contribute to a revitalization of democracy and that the parties would then have to renew themselves again and again in terms of programs and personnel.

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"Democracy is temporary rule and lives from change, alternatives and the limitation of power," says Degenhart.

“If someone is elected over and over again, it reinforces their conviction that by and large they are doing everything right and that there is no alternative to them as a person.

This is dangerous."

A possible term limit was already an issue in the Bundestag in March 2019.

In the Basic Law it had been neglected to provide the chancellor's power with a time limit, it was said in a draft law of the AfD, which was rejected by all other parliamentary groups.

The draft also spoke of a “monopoly of power”.

In the plenary session that followed, it became clear that the AfD was primarily concerned with implementing the slogan “Merkel must go”.

How great the chancellor's power actually is is a matter of controversy in political science.

While under Adenauer, due to his position as an authoritarian figure at the top, there was still talk of a chancellor's democracy, this later only applied to individual phases of terms of office.

The first in office: Konrad Adenauer (CDU) was Federal Chancellor from 1949 to 1963

Source: pa / Kurt Rohwedde / Kurt Rohwedder

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Then the German system of government was analyzed more as a coordination or coalition democracy, in which the chancellor takes on a moderating role and tries to work out a balance of interests with the parliamentary groups and parties.

It is also controversial whether Merkel's later chancellorships in particular can again be attributed to a chancellor democracy.

"In the course of the past electoral periods, the weights in the system of separation of powers have shifted: in parliament towards the government, in the government towards the chancellery," says constitutional lawyer Degenhart.

"The Chancellery as the actual power center of the republic does not correspond to the spirit of the Basic Law."

What speaks against a limitation

The Freiburg political scientist Wolfgang Jäger, on the other hand, considers the office of Federal Chancellor to be completely overrated in terms of policy-making.

“The Merkel era was an era of moderation.

Actual decisions were made, if at all, only in the context of the zeitgeist. "

The judge at the constitutional court of Baden-Wuerttemberg is convinced that limiting the term of office of the chancellor would be contrary to the system, since the responsibility for the government lies in parliament.

"It would mean incapacitation of the voters and the parties," says Jäger.

He fears that a limitation through permanent follow-up discussions would lead to chaos.

"Government stability was an essential goal of the mothers and fathers of the Basic Law and would be sacrificed."

The Bonn political scientist Frank Decker also fears that the Chancellor would become a “lame duck” in his second and final term of office.

US presidents at the end of their second term of office who can only be re-elected once in the local political system and then lose their influence accordingly are considered to be such “lame ducks”.

In fact, there has so far only been a limitation on the term of office in parliamentary systems of government for the head of state.

Decker analyzes that by proposing a limit the parties wanted to create the impression that they were ready to give up power themselves.

"I'm afraid that the proposal is not meant seriously and that they just want to ingratiate themselves with the public who portray politicians as obsessed with power."

Or extend the legislature?

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Among the current candidates for chancellor, the Green Baerbock is so far the only one who has been involved in the debate.

When asked by WELT, neither Armin Laschet (CDU) nor Olaf Scholz (SPD) could get a statement.

That is what the three candidates for Chancellor stand for

The three candidates for chancellor have finally been chosen: Olaf Scholz is running for the SPD, Armin Laschet for the Union and Annalena Baerbock for the Greens.

But what are the candidates?

And what do they stand for?

Source: WORLD / Isabell Finzel

Left Party leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow is certain that a limitation of the term of office for the Chancellor would “not promote democracy”.

In every election, the population should continue to have a decision as to which party to vote for and who to send to the Chancellery and how often.

"Anyone who demands otherwise must be asked whether he or she mistrusts the population."

It was only the week before last that the coalition factions decided to set up an electoral law commission.

This should deal in particular with the size of the Bundestag, but also with the chancellor's re-election options and the length of the legislative period.

An extension of the term of office is considered to be much more likely than a term limit for the chancellorship.

Most recently, the SPD leader Saskia Esken had spoken out in favor.

Proponents hope to work more consistently without constant election campaigns and coalition negotiations.

There is also a clear statement from the CSU: "An extension of the legislative period to five years gives a government more time to implement courageous measures and to be able to convey them," says the parliamentary group leader of the CSU regional group in the Bundestag, Stefan Müller, WELT.

This creates stability in political operations.

Müller also believes that a simultaneous limitation of the Chancellor's term of office to two legislative periods is correct: "It forces the parties to constantly renew themselves and to remain innovative."

The Junge Union has been calling for a limit to three periods since 2018.

Merkel argued at what was then Germany Day that this would interfere with the freedom of the MPs.

The FDP has included both a term of office for the Federal Chancellor of a maximum of ten years and an extension of the legislative period to five years in its draft program for the upcoming federal election.

Left leader Hennig-Wellsow contradicts: “Being able to vote less often would mean that people would have fewer opportunities to influence.

That is the opposite of what this society needs. "

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With the exception of the Bremen citizenship, all German state parliaments are now only elected every five years.

An extension of the period against which the citizens of Bremen decided in 2017 was mostly accompanied by the introduction of plebiscitary elements.

From a constitutional point of view, one could argue that a call for such elements at the federal level would be more justified the longer the legislative period lasts.

However, the Basic Law is based on the principle of representation, which defines the MPs as “representatives of the whole people”.

The Greens and the SPD have since abandoned earlier demands that an extension of the period would lead to referendums at the federal level. The Greens delegates, for example, at the party congress last November, narrowly voted for so-called citizens' councils.