Really, psychologists have deeply interviewed German voters before the election, according to a selection that reflects the party sympathies in the country. And there is no uplifting image that is drawn: a strong feeling of being a loser, out of anxiety and disappointment at politics. Three years with a constantly noisy government coalition with the Social Democrats, the Green and the Liberals have left a bit of aftertaste with most Germans.
“They were really their own opposition,” one of my neighbors expressed the matter when the government finally collapsed in November last year.
Now the Germans seem to long for a strong leader figure who can speed up the country’s economy, which can control immigration and prepare the country’s weathering infrastructure. In the past, many managed to keep out the problems from their own homes. When you closed, you could leave the problems outside the door. Today, the sex of problems penetrates into the homes, in the private economy and in increasingly hot discussions with the closest.
“High interest in the election”
In the conversations with the psychologists, the Germans wish someone who can live up to the title of crisis manager. But among the people who front the parties in this election, no one really meets this. And even though the commitment and interest in this election is higher than last time, it is with a sense of powerlessness that many people go and vote on Sunday.
Something particularly ominous that emerges there in the psychologist’s sofa is the experience of sitting on a barrel with powder with an increasingly short stub where an explosion moves ever closer. What could extinguish the stub would be if the election gave a policy with a clear direction, regardless of the interviewees’ various political preferences, with more pragmatic solutions. And politicians who devote themselves less to tactics and power play even today.
If you are going to listen to the German patient now, that is.