By Mohamed Chebaro
One government in, another one out — that is becoming a feature pointing to the instability within the EU’s family of nations. One could easily dismiss this and consider it the usual liberal-democratic game of politics within each country of the bloc. But the vote of no-confidence in the center-left government of Olaf Scholz after weeks of turmoil does not bode well for Germany, Europe’s biggest economy. It now seems set to join France in a potential spiral of instability, which could leave the EU without two of its biggest players at a crucial junction of history.
As 2025 dawns, the two superpowers of the EU are likely to welcome the new year without a working government, no agreed budgets and fractured politics, with the narratives of the extremes dominating the public debates, if not yet their political institutions. The two engines of the EU, France and Germany, are in crisis just as adversities gather at the gates of the bloc and multiply.
Embattled Chancellor Scholz of Germany is, after three years in power as part of an unruly three-colors coalition, lagging badly in the polls behind conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, of the Christian Democratic Union party of ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel. And while his government has struggled to revive a stuttering economy that is suffering from high energy prices and tougher competition from China, one wonders what chance any alternative coalition would have. Germany is facing major geopolitical challenges, such as its........