In Germany, pressing issues fail to energize a bored electorate

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, September 27, 2009

Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times

GOLM, Germany – As the clock ticks down to national elections, voter apathy is rising to fever pitch.

Forget that the next government faces a host of important challenges, from lifting Europe's biggest economy out of recession to reconsidering its commitment of troops for the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan. When polls open today, Germans are expected to stay away in droves.

Jutta Hoffman is one of the uninterested.

"I don't believe in politicians anymore," said Hoffman, a florist's assistant in Golm, a quiet village outside the northeastern city of Potsdam. "I'm 50 years old now; I've seen everything ... I know all the parties, but I'm not interested in any of them."

Hoffman's indifference, and that of millions of others, is due in part to what experts agree has been one of the dullest electoral contests in Germany in recent memory.

Despite the difficult issues and choices that lie ahead, the race has largely steered clear of substantive discussion. For that, analysts largely point at the woman who, barring some catastrophe, looks set to be returned to Germany's top post: Chancellor Angela Merkel, the world's only female leader of a major power.

Opinion polls give Merkel's party, the Christian Democrats, a healthy lead over its nearest rival, the Social Democrats. Even stronger are Merkel's personal approval ratings, which have encouraged her to play it safe and sedate in the campaign.

The question now facing political watchers – if not the general public – is who Merkel's governing partner will be, since no party is likely to win an outright majority in the Bundestag. The Christian Democrats, or CDU, are hoping that the pro-business Free Democrats will finish strongly enough to allow a ruling coalition between them, which would help Merkel to enact reforms of Germany's rigid labor market and to lower taxes.

Such an alliance would end the awkward alliance that has governed Germany for the last four years: a "grand coalition" of the center-right CDU and the center-left Social Democrats, or SPD, historically bitter rivals. Their often uncomfortable power-sharing arrangement has stalled action on such issues as Germany's nuclear power plants, which Merkel wants to keep running despite public pressure for a phase-out.