(6 September 2016)  German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered an embarrassing defeat in regional elections over the weekend as her CDU party came in third behind the center-left SPD and the right-wing anti-immigrant AfD party.  The loss is another repudiation of Merkel’s controversial open-door immigrant policy that has seen over 1 million Muslim refugees from Syria enter the country in the past year. With a general election due in the fall of 2017, Merkel and the CDU may be forced to backtrack on the immigrant policy or risk losing control of the Bundestag.

This loss fulfills a previous political astrology prediction I had made about Merkel’s fortunes for 2016 due to some longer term planetary afflictions.  Following a similar state election setback in March, I suggested that the ongoing affliction by Saturn to her Ascendant for most of 2016 would cause more problems.  Interestingly, the horoscope for Germany itself was also under this Saturnian pressure as this reflects the prevailing sense of political unease about the future of the immigrant policy.

The problem for Ms. Merkel is that her Ascendant lies at 20 degrees of sidereal Scorpio.  Transiting Saturn is now at 16 Scorpio after stationing direct in the summer at 15 Scorpio.  Transiting Mars (22 Scorpio) is also nearby having just crossed her Ascendant a couple of days before.   Both Mars and Saturn are natural malefics, of course, and this double whammy tends to coincide with stressful periods and unfavourable events whenever they align with a sensitive point in a person’s chart such as the Moon, the Sun, or the Ascendant. 

The affliction is duplicated in the 1871 Germany horoscope since that has the nearly exact opposite Ascendant at 19 Taurus.  Thus, the Mars-Saturn conjunction in Scorpio hits the 7th house cusp and aspects the Ascendant by opposition.  The near-mirror image of Merkel’s Ascendant and Germany’s Ascendant may be one reason why she has enjoyed a long tenure as Chancellor.  The aligned Ascendants make her a natural sort of mirror for the nation as she may reflect the people’s consciousness and project it back to them.

And yet she seems to have miscalculated on this immigrant policy.  Her approval ratings are at a five-year low and next year’s election may not go well.  It is still possible she may be forced to resign before the election in order to give the CDU a better chance of winning. 

Saturn will conjoin the Ascendant in late October and early November but I suspect some of the negativity for her has manifested already in this election result.  Saturn is still yet to hit the Ascendant but the Mars likely acted as a bridge for the slower-moving Saturn to express its influence a little ahead of time.  October will likely be stressful in any event, however, as Ketu aspects her natal Mercury, her dasha lord.  That can bring about big changes in life, usually changes that are unpleasant in some way.  A resignation is not out of the question, although I wonder if she will be involved with an unwanted event of somewhat lesser significance.

Her challenges are unlikely to ease in 2017.  Transiting Saturn (3 Sagittarius) is due to station in April 2017 exactly on her Mars in the 2nd house.  This is likely to bring new stresses and setbacks although I’m not sure they will involve her refugee policy.  The second house relates more to the economy and wealth so financial matters may be more in focus at that time.   In another parallel placement, this Saturn station will hit Germany’s Moon (2 Sagittarius) very closely.  The Moon represents the people as a whole so that suggests some loss or suffering that is borne by the population as a whole.  This sounds more like an economic problems than political conflict or political damage.

Her chart doesn’t look very promising for the election which will be held in either September or October next year.  Saturn will still be in her 1st house and thus will have a depressing effect on most of her actions.  Transiting Uranus will be square her Sun (as it will for the rest of 2016 and all of 2017) and thus create a destabilizing influence.  The Sun-Uranus square can reflect situations that are chaotic, disruptive and somehow out of control.  This does not bode well for her re-election in 2017.  If she is still leader of the CDU by that time, I think she will lose power.

Weekly Market Forecast

Stocks have been fairly mixed in recent days following a mediocre US jobs report.  As has been the case for the past several years, bad or underwhelming economic news is good news for the stock market since it means the Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rate policy will continue.  Near zero rates make it easier for companies to borrow money to buy back their stock, thus reducing the supply available to investors and thus bidding up the price. 

In last week’s market forecast, I thought we might have seen more downside last week on the Mars-Rahu aspect although I was somewhat uncertain about how US stocks would react to the jobs report.  Friday’s Mercury-Jupiter conjunction was a bullish influence but I would unsure if it would prevail.

This week again contains some bearish potential but this time without any obvious bullish Jupiter aspects which might offset the negativity.  The late week looks more vulnerable in this respect as the Moon aligns with Mars and Saturn.  Maybe this is the week where will see more of that underlying bearish influence of the Venus transit of Virgo.