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Originally Posted by Osem
It's not just about the end of Merkel though is it. She has to go sometime. It's about who replaces her and how extreme they might be as a result of the lip service which has been paid to an awful lot of people's sincere and justified concerns.
There's talk about an official parliamentary investigation being launched into Merkel's migration decision not being entirely legal. That might be interesting.
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I think this is probably Merkel's last term. She can't go on forever.
The AfD is a worrying result but given the material they've had to work with in the migration crisis and Eurozone ballouts it's hard to imagine a better election cycle for them than this one.
I am placing this from the perspective of how we thought this could play out at the start of the year. Macron willing in France, Merkel winning in Germany, Italy not bringing down the EU and even the far right falling short in Holland and Austria are a far cry of the worst fears people had of 2017.
Not to say there aren't serious issues to be addressed but everything is looking more stable than 9 months ago. The election probably serves as a warning the issues aren't gone but the commentators acting as if this is earth-shattering should look at their articles at the tail-end of last year.