評論
打印
Germany’s parliamentary election
德國國會選舉
Charging at Merkel
沖！扳倒默克爾！
The Social Democrats pick their candidate to challenge Angela Merkel
社民黨候選人VS安吉拉·默克爾
Peer Steinbruck is a rare German politician in that his sense of irony, delivered in the staccato Hanseatic dialect of his native Hamburg, is sharp, even hilarious. His favourite animal is the rhinoceros, and rhetorically he charges ahead in much the same way. His main hobby is chess, at which he seems to excel. In sheer intellect, he can match Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, whom Mr Steinbruck will challenge in next year’s parliamentary election. “It won’t be a boring campaign,” Mr Steinbruck promised wryly on October 1st, after the leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) nominated him.
佩爾·施泰因布呂克是為數不多的能讓自己的諷刺既聽起來尖酸又令人發笑的德國政治家，他帶著家鄉漢堡間斷的漢撒方言。他最喜歡犀牛，從修辭的角度看，他向前沖的方式也與犀牛非常相似。國際象棋是他的業余愛好，在這方面他似乎造詣深厚。就純粹才智而言，他能媲美現任總理默克爾，明年他倆將角逐國會選舉。10月1日在被社民黨（SPD）領導人提名為候選人后，施泰因布呂克帶點自嘲地地保證“不會讓選戰太無聊”。
That nomination did not go quite as planned. The election is still a year away and the SPD wanted to spare its candidate a prolonged grilling. So its chairman, Sigmar Gabriel, had designed an elaborate theatre to keep the candidacy open until January. He himself was one option, Mr Steinbruck the second, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the SPD’s parliamentary leader, the third. Privately, Messrs Gabriel and Steinmeier admitted they did not want the job. When this leaked out, Mr Steinbruck had to be crowned in a hurry.
候選人提名并沒有按計劃進行。距離大選還有一年，社民黨不想讓其候選人因為太早暴露而在接下來這么長一段時間里受折磨。故而西格瑪·加布里爾主席精心設計了一套方案讓候選名單到一月份再正式公布。他把自己定位為第一候選人，施泰因布呂克第二，社民黨國會領導人弗蘭克·瓦爾特·施泰因邁爾第三。然而，私下里加布里爾先生和施泰因邁爾先生卻承認自己并不想擔當該職。于是消息一經泄露，施泰因布呂克只得被迫匆忙上任。
The reluctance of the other two is understandable. Germans think Mrs Merkel has had a good euro crisis—according to polls, voters view her as dependable—and she remains hugely favoured to win re-election. Mr Gabriel, the youngest of the SPD’s triumvirate, at 53, may have concluded that he should wait for better odds another day. Mr Steinmeier, who already challenged Mrs Merkel in 2009 and lost, is seen as a softy and did not want to go through the circus again.
加布里爾和施泰因邁爾不愿成為候選人其實很好理解。根據民意測驗，德國民眾覺得默克爾在歐元危機中表現得不錯，選民覺得她可靠，大都看好她連任。53歲的加布里爾是社民黨三巨頭中最年輕的一位，他認為只有另尋他日才能贏得更大的機會；施泰因邁爾在2009年曾挑戰過默克爾，但是卻以失敗告終，原因是民眾覺得他過于軟弱，所以他也不想再一次經歷這樣的鬧劇。
Mr Steinbruck was in his late 50s by the time he led his party in a big election for the first time, in North-Rhine Westphalia, where he was premier. He lost that election. He then ended up in Mrs Merkel’s own government, as her finance minister, in 2005-09, during the grand coalition between Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
施泰因布呂克是在年近花甲時才第一次代表其所在黨派參加大選，那時他在北萊茵-威斯特法倫州當州長?？上]有贏得大選。2005年至2009年間社民黨與默克爾所在的基督教民主聯盟組成執政聯盟，他出任默克爾政府的財政部長。
They made a good pair. One memorable moment was October 5th 2008, in the first throes of the financial crisis. A bank run seemed imminent, and Mrs Merkel and Mr Steinbruck appeared together to assure savers that their money was safe. They genuinely respect each other.
他們曾是一對好搭檔。2008年10月5日令人記憶深刻，那是金融海嘯的第一波沖擊，銀行擠兌迫在眉睫。默克爾和施泰因布呂克不約而同出現在大眾面前，向儲蓄者保證儲蓄是安全的。他們由衷的敬佩彼此。
Now, of course, they will fight a battle of wits, which Mrs Merkel also has in abundance, but displays less readily in public. Philosophically, their differences are smaller than they might admit. Mrs Merkel poaches issues from the centre-left parties where she can. Mr Steinbruck is on the right of his erstwhile Socialist party.
毫無疑問，他們即將展開斗智斗勇的選戰，默克爾深諳此道，只是很少在大眾面前展露鋒芒。達觀地看待他們的差別，似乎并沒他們所說的那么大。默克爾給中左翼黨派的找麻煩，施泰因布呂克也一直給社會黨右派做工作。
Wooing its left wing is Mr Steinbruck’s first task. He is hoping that railing against banks will suffice. This week he begged the lefties for “leg room” (which he specified at 180cm, bringing the house down). Publicly, he insists that he wants to form a government only in coalition with the Greens, but he knows that the most likely result (arithmetically) is another grand coalition with the CDU. If that happens, he may bow out of politics, for he has ruled out serving under Mrs Merkel again.
討好左派是施泰因布呂克現在的首要任務。他希望只要通過譴責銀行就能實現這一目的。本周，他請求左派能給予更大的“伸腿空間”（他明確指出要180厘米，否則同盟將瓦解）。他公開聲稱希望組成由社民黨和綠黨共同執政的聯合政府。但是他明白最可能的結果（根據民意測驗的數據統計）就是社民黨與基督教民主聯盟形成聯合政府。若真是如此，他將退出政壇，因為他拒絕了再一次在默克爾政府任職機會。 翻譯：郁炳睿
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