Elections

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioğlu is in Tbilisi this week, in his first visit since the October parliamentary elections widely seen as flawed. The OSCE/ODIHR’s own observer mission had criticised the government’s handling of the October 2024 elections. On Wednesday, Sinirlioğlu met with the Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.

On Wednesday (9 April) a new coalition government was announced in Germany bringing back a CDU chancellor working with the centre-left SPD as junior partners. It is an arrangement that Germans are familiar with. Many post-war German governments were similarly constituted, and the German people are comfortable with this arrangement. It buries the prospect of the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland  (AfD), which came second in recent elections, having a role in government. The 146 pages coalition agreement was hammered out in a relatively short time, with those negotiating fully aware of the urgency of giving the country a stable government at a time of global uncertainty and serious domestic challenges. “Germany is back on track” announced the Chancellor-designate, Friedrich Merz, who is expected to take office in early May. Europeans should be happy. A strong Germany is the backbone of Europe, and the new coalition is the best guarantee of that.