Where'd the Khashoggi News Go? + German Federal Elections by Next Fall

Today marks day three of a mainstream news cycle largely devoid of Khashoggi news. Saudi public prosecutor Saud Al Mojeb has been in Istanbul the last couple of days holding talks with Turkish officials. The lack of salacious Khashoggi morsels in Erdogan's loyal press leads one to be believe that headway is being made in negotiations between Turkey and al-Saud.

One Khashoggi bombshell from yesterday that the prestige press chose to ignore is a British tabloid story from the Daily Express alleging that UK intelligence knew, based on intercepts, that the Khashoggi hit was going to happen, tried to wave off the operation by contacting the Saudis directly, but then remained silent when that proved unsuccessful. Khashoggi was about to reveal, so the story goes, Saudi use of chemical weapons in Yemen; that's why he was brutally murdered.

Today there is plenty of mulling over Merkel's announcement to stand down as party leader of the Christian Democratic Union. The New York Times published a love letter in the form of an unsigned editorial, "In Merkel, Europe Loses a Leader." I think neoliberal passion burns hotter for Merkel than any other head of state, except for maybe Obama when he was in power.

The consensus opinion appears to be that Germany will hold new federal elections sooner than those scheduled for 2021. Katrin Bennhold and Melissa Eddy reporting from Berlin say,

The chancellor said she would step down as leader of her conservative party in December and would not seek re-election in 2021. That means Ms. Merkel may remain on the political scene for months to come. But few observers believe she could hang on until the end of her term, speculating that new elections could be held as early as next year.

Alex Gorka, writing for Strategic Culture, agrees:

With no support in her own party, her chances for retaining the position of chancellor are slim at best. In theory, she could remain chancellor until 2021 even after resigning, but in practice this would be a very slim hope. After all, it was she who advocated for the idea that the position of the party’s leader and chancellor be held by one person wearing two hats. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU General Secretary and the chancellor’s preferred successor, believes that the Social Democrats (SPD) could quit the ruling coalition after its poor showing in the polls, thus triggering a general election. With the CDU polling at 26-27% nationally, Merkel’s era would come to an end.

Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Peter Altmaier, provides a nonsensical defense of the continuation of the GroKo, saying that, “The grand coalition will hold together because the SPD, CDU and CSU would otherwise lose a huge amount of voters’ trust.”

It's a safe bet that there will be federal elections in Germany by next fall.