독일사민당의 위기와 정치적 선택: 제4기 대연합정부 출범과 통합 유럽

Abstract

After the 19th general election, which took place in September 24, 2017, the German politics are dramatically changing. The 4th Grand Coalition came to a launch half a year after the results of the election had come out. The results of the general election can be summarized into the followings; the weakening of the grand party, fragmentation of the party system, and the political entrance of the far right-wing party into the Bundestag. These phenomena are often described as the crisis of the existing political system and are said to be the crucial factor of the changes in the German politics. Due to the launch of the Grand Coalition, the concerned voices towards the chaotic German politics and the crisis of political system have subsided. Nevertheless, since the process of launching the 4th Grand Coalition was extremely complicated and difficult, the views that German political situation would not be smooth are dominant. In the center of this chaos stands the Social Democratic Party(SPD). Because the tracking of SPD’s confusion and political decisions is directly related to the fate of the 4th Grand Coalition, there is a need for a detailed research. In relation to this, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the launching process of the 4th Grand Coalition, which occurred against the prediction of the post-election and to seek for its cause. Especially, this paper is to find out the cause and process of SPD’s change of its course back to the rejoining in the Grand Coalition despite a sharp decline of an approval rate in the former rounds of the Grand Coalition and the agreement from the majority of the members of the party. What this research pays attention to is the relationship between the political decision of SPD and the Integrated Europe in “crisis.” The political decision of SPD　to consecutively participate in the Grand Coalition is closely related to the changing situation due to the entrance of the far right-wing party into the Bundestag, which is against the unstable Integrated Europe such as Brexit and tendency towards transnational integration, To prove this, this research tracks down the key documents that contain the political orientation and statement of SPD for the Integrated Europe. SPD’s Hamburg Programme and the Coalition Contract of 2013 and 2018 are the main analysis targets.