First of all, I would like to wish a happy Ramadan Bayram to all of our readers. Unfortunately, in many corners of the world, Muslims have to pass another holiday in poverty, pain and under oppression. In Syria and Yemen, children have to experience another Eid al-Fitr without truly experiencing what it's really supposed to be like. Life is not easy for European Muslims either. They are being exploited as propaganda subjects by far-right and far-left populist parties. Life is getting harder every passing day for European Muslims. Certain groups that were unable to draw lessons from history or are uninterested in doing so are trying to drag Europe toward darkness anew.
Those who are admiring those who wore brown or black uniforms in the past, by winning the voters support as they did in the last European Parliament elections, are increasingly threatening Europe's democracy every passing day.
European Muslims are experiencing a Ramadan in which they are watching these developments with worries. Following the European Parliament elections, the European Union is busy organizing the next five years.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who is visiting the United Kingdom, which has been unable to get out of the European Union despite the fact that "Brexit" supporters won a great victory in the European Parliament elections, is advising the British as such: Forget about this European Union, even without an agreement get out immediately.
And while small scale "earthquakes" are being experienced in France following the European Parliament elections, the great "earthquake" we were waiting for in Germany has occurred. The so-called "grand coalition," which forms the federal government of the EU's most stable and strongest state; Germany, is experiencing serious troubles due to its small partner; the Social Democrats (SPD). The SPD, which at one point was Germany's second great "center" party and a political power throughout the country's history following the war that paved the way for Germany to become an important power around the world with chancellors like Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schroeder, nowadays is in a very powerless state.
The SPD, which after the last Social Democrat chancellor and SPD President Gerhard Schroeder wasted nine presidents, has become a small party by constantly losing voters and members. The party has suffered increasingly greater defeats with every federal election it has participated in.
Similarly, it has lost a lot of provincial governments in the provincial assembly elections due to defeats it has suffered. And finally in the European Parliament elections, by suffering the greatest defeat in its history with around 15% of votes, it has become one of the small parties, behind the Greens with a major margin. The latest SPD President Andrea Nahles resigned this Sunday.
To be honest, for the SPD, which has suffered a great defeat during Martin Schulz's presidency, electing Andrea Nahles as a president was a grave mistake. Nahles was a "symbolic" name for the "leftist" group within the SPD. However, she was the wrong choice for Germany. For the German voters, an SPD governed by Andrea Nahles has nothing to offer. And it happened as such. SPD presidents after Gerhard Schroeder were unable to win the trust of the voters. None of them managed to become a "serious" opponent and an "alternative" for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Voters do not trust the SPD. Members of the SPD, on the other hand, believe that the grand coalition harms their party and they demand becoming the opposition. However, this also is not a solution for the SPD because what harms the SPD is not the grand coalition, it is the party itself.
After Gerhard Schroeder, the SPD's staff has been rather ineffective. Among the ministers from the party that hold responsibilities on a federal level and prime ministers still in the government at provincial levels, they do not have a single name that gives hope for the future. They are also aware of this, thus none of them want to become the new SPD president. This state that the SPD is in has started to become a big problem for the federal government, Chancellor Merkel and her party the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).
How far can the grand coalition go with the tiny social democrat partner, which is losing power every passing day? As in all of Europe, the case of "center parties" losing power is also true for Germany. How long can the Greens, which is the number one and the most powerful party in Germany according to public opinion polls, stay in opposition? Until yesterday the people were gossiping about a possible new coalition model of the CDU/Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) with the Greens rather than the SPD. On the other hand, the Greens are now seeing dreams about a new federal government where a Green chancellor is at the head. In the "new government model" different coalition alternatives are possible. And it is no longer just a dream. It could become a reality at any moment now. Right now the subjects of "how long the grand coalition will last" and an early election are the most talked about topics in lobbies. We will see.
France had made a surprise across the entire EU. Does a secondary surprise await the EU now? The days where a Green chancellor could represent Germany in the EU leader's summit might not be far away. Everything is possible. No one believed that Donald Trump could become the president in the U.S. Did they not?