THE refugee crisis is not the only issue that could decide next autumn’s election of the Bundestag. If Germany’s three left-wing parties get their wish, social justice may become just as contentious. The Social Democrats (who currently govern as junior partners under the chancellor, Angela Merkel), along with the Greens and The Left, which descends from the Communist Party in the former East Germany, are hoping to form a leftist coalition on this issue to unseat Mrs Merkel in 2017. Their dream is to spark a Bernie Sanders-like movement that—this being Germany, not America—could sweep them into power. So they have begun reciting a menacing-sounding metaphor: the “scissors” (ie, the gap) between rich and poor will keep widening unless they get to run the country.
Whether or not the divide between haves and have-nots is increasing is debatable. Compared with the 1990s, income inequality is higher as measured by the Gini coefficient. But it peaked in 2005 and has since remained broadly stable. Within the EU, Germany is a middling country in terms of income inequality, behind a few more egalitarian countries, such as Sweden, and well ahead of...Continue reading
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