What will 2019 be remembered for in Germany?
Will it be the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement, as the Society for the German Language (GfdS) seems to think? This well-respected institution has included Fridays for Future in its list of the top three words of 2019. ‘More than any other expression of this era, the term stands for a young generation ready to take action on the climate crisis’, it says.
But how much has Fridays for Future actually affected people’s lives? Possibly as little as the word Flugscham (flight-shaming) – another term linked to the climate debate that gained prominence this year. ‘The flight-shame movement takes off’, claimed Deutsche Welle (Germany’s equivalent of the World Service) in July, just as Germans were about to set off on their summer holidays. But words and reality can be miles apart. In truth, more planes are flying from German airports than ever before.
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Perhaps ‘Kenya coalition’ is the new word which describes the political reality in Germany more aptly. Based on the colours of the Kenyan flag, it refers to the colours of the centre-right CDU (black), the centre-left SPD (red) and the Green Party (green). Though not strictly new – the first Kenya coalition was established in 2016, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt – this form of coalition has become the last resort for the established parties to hold on to power in ever-more parts of the country.
Following state elections in three eastern states in the autumn, Kenya was established in two of them: Brandenburg and Saxony. The weakness of the old ruling parties – the SPD and the CDU – which can no longer form stable governments on their own or with just one partner, has fuelled this trend. Kenya is the code for the defensive teaming-up of formerly separate – even opposing – parties against one common enemy: the AfD, which came second in all three of the big state elections. It’s a strategy that has led to unstable and largely administrative governments, whose main aim is to stay in office.
