BERLIN — Far away from the hipster bars of Kreuzberg, the posh streets of Prenzlauer Berg, and the exorbitantly-priced flats of Berlin Mitte, is a part of the German capital that few tourists visit. Most of the Neu Hohenschönhausen neighborhood consists of the typical East German high-rise building of the post-war period known as Die Platte. Typical not just for vast areas on the periphery of the capital, but other towns and cities in Germany, many people living here are underemployed or retired and rely on the German state to make ends meet. While for a long time German political debate paid lip service to their plight, this year’s election campaign is different.
“One of our biggest problems is the lack of day care spots,” says Kevin Hönicke, who is running as the candidate for Berlin Lichtenberg, the district that covers Neu Schönhausen, for the Social Democratic Party, or SPD. “Without them, the women are forced to stay on unemployment.”
About 55 percent of all mothers in the neighborhood raise children alone, and about 60 percent of kids grow up in houses that depend on social welfare payments, according to Hönicke’s numbers.
“In comparison to other countries, maybe, we are considered a just country,” says Hönicke, who grew up in a Berlin neighborhood similar to Neu Hohenschönhausen. “But in national discussions, we do feel it could be a more just society.”
Though they live in one of the richest countries in the world with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, Germans say they are increasingly worried about economic disparities. The current election campaign pits six major parties against each other for seats in the German Parliament, the Bundestag. When votes are counted this Sunday, the leader of the party that earns the plurality will become — or more likely remain — chancellor. During a campaign described by many as “boring,” topics like underpaid work, poverty among the elderly and equal access to education and rent-control have, surprisingly, competed with more traditional topics like refugees, foreign relations and the broader economy.
“Of course, Germany is a wealthy country,” Martin Schulz, the SPD leader seen as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s top rival, said in a televised debate with her. “But not all people in our country are wealthy.”
A survey carried out last year by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, a political foundation ideologically aligned with but independent of the SPD, found that 82 percent of Germans thought wealth inequality was becoming too pronounced. While those who tended to vote for parties associated with the left expressed the highest unease, even 76 percent of voters of the mainstream conservative party, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, thought the current state of society was unfair.
Merkel, who has been in power for 12 years, likes to mention the nearly 2.5 million fewer people unemployed since she took the highest office. But not all German jobs are created equal. While extensive professional training has generally guaranteed professional standards and good wages, certain sectors such as elderly care or hairdressing are notoriously underpaid despite requiring professional certificates.
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Worse, so-called mini-jobs, jobs that pay less than 450 euros a month, or roughly $540, have become part of German reality. Once a rarity reserved for students, an increasing number of Germans rely on several of these to make ends meet. Last year there were about 7.8 million mini-jobs in the country, up 2.2 million from 2003.
And while short-term unemployment has dropped in recent years, the number of those on long-term unemployment has remained steady at roughly 4.4 million over the last five years — meaning many are struggling to get by.
A federal minimum wage, currently about $10.60, was only introduced two years ago in a Parliament.
And while wages and types of employment are being discussed this election season, the debate is also about a vision for Germany. Some politicians still celebrate the country as a place where everyone is trained for a good-paying job. For others, however, the reality of mini-jobs, underemployment and working for temporary staffing agencies is too real to ignore.
Peter Tauber, a member of the German Parliament and secretary general of the ruling CDU party, found himself on the defensive this summer after a uncouth reply to someone on Twitter who appeared to facetiously ask about the plausibility of holding three concurrent mini-jobs.
“When you’ve learned something proper, you don’t need three mini-jobs,” Tauber replied. The jab caused so much outrage that the politician had to make an official apology.
The SPD, Germany’s oldest party and the one traditionally associated with socially progressive policies, made “Time for more fairness” it’s campaign slogan. But political rivals question its commitment.
The progressive Green Party and the Left Party, which has found appeal with the left wing of the SPD and old East German socialists, accuse the SPD of not doing enough while it was the junior coalition partner in government these last four years.
“For a wealthy country like Germany, it is shameful when employment and pensions aren’t enough to live on,” says Alexander Tietz-Latza, a Green Party candidate for the city of Aachen, on the western border of the country.
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According to him, this doesn’t only affect untrained workers. “It endangers social cohesion and leads to insecurity when it comes to life and future planning.”
Despite the SPD’s campaign slogan, it is set to win only 22 percent of the vote, according to recent opinion polls. Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian-only sister party, the Christian Social Union, are projected to lead the pack with 36 percent. Both Merkel’s liberal refugee policy and the perception that she is a deft, steady hand on an increasingly tumultuous world stage have earned her the respect — and if polls hold, the votes — of the plurality of Germans, although they have also had a role in giving rise to the hard-right Alternative for Germany, the AfD.
The AfD, which is poised to enter Parliament for the first time, is competing for third place with The Left. The free-market Free Democratic Party and the Greens are likely going to come in last, though both are hoping for a role in a coalition government.
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Talk of Economic Inequality Surfaces in the German Election originally appeared on usnews.com
