German elections: CDU resorts to ‘Red Scare’ tactics as speculation begins on likely coalitions

The CDU is stoking fears the SPD would form a coalition with the pro-environment Greens and the far-left Linke party, but it’s an unlikely prospect, writes Erik Kirschbaum

Political Parties Campaign In Federal Elections (Getty Images)

What has until now been a polite and civilized German election campaign has taken an ugly turn in the final weeks as the ruling conservatives have resorted to “Red Scare” tactics with echoes from the Cold War in a bid to frighten voters away from the centre-left Social Democrats.

The only trouble is nearly half of Germany’s voters today are under the age of 50 and so were either not yet born or have only a small inkling of what the epic East-West confrontation was even all about. The last-gasp “Red Scare” mudslinging from outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative party also seems suspicious to most voters after the party spent 12 of 16 years in a successful, trouble-free “grand coalition” with those very same Social Democrats.

“It’s an act of desperation from a party that seems to have run out of ideas,” said Thomas Jäger, a political scientist at the University of Cologne, in an interview. “The conservatives have waged the most unimaginative and probably most uncreative campaign they ever had. Now they’re even dusting off the old ‘Red Scare’ strategy and hoping that might work,” he added, referring to the periodic Cold War fears prevalent in West Germany that the country might one day be overrun by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact countries and communism.