German Bundestag Election

[Godwynn]

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Polling Data
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The vote is on September 27th. Angela Merkel is practically assured of being Chancellor for a second term. The question now is who will be her partner. Will it be her favored partner, the FDP? Or will the grand coalition continue with Merkel leading the CDU and SPD for another four years?

The FDP, despite being a free market oriented party has been polling well. The successor party to the former East Germany ruling party (SED) die Linke (the Left) has gotten a boost from recent state elections in the Saarland and Thuringia.

Was it wise for Guido Westerwelle (head of the FDP) to rule out a coalition with the Greens? Will the SPD swallow its pride and form a coalition with die Linke and the Greens? Is Germany headed for another grand coalition?

 

[Gigaz]

Greens, Linke and FDP perform well because they are quite extreme compared to SPD and CDU. The two biggest parties make an unpredictable middle-of-the-road policy. The Germans tend to vote extremists in a crisis. Still I hope for another Grand coalition. I can't stand the FDP.

 

[dot]

If the CDU/CSU will be able to rule with the FDP I may need to ask for shelter at your place, Godwynn. (I hear you, Gigaz! )

But I think it most likely - and hope - that another grand coalition will be the thing. That's the least of all evils, imho.

 

[Godwynn]

If the CDU/CSU will be able to rule with the FDP I may need to ask for shelter at your place, Godwynn.

Heh, how about we trade abodes?

Which coalition would be for lower immigration requirements on educated workers?

 

[Winner]

CDU/CSU + FDP = German economic recovery = Czech prosperity.

 

[Perfection]

Are you able to vote for all the options?

 

[Godwynn]

CDU/CSU + FDP = German economic recovery = Czech prosperity.

I'm sure the Germans wouldn't mind you starting a referendum to join the new Rei... er Republic.

 

[Winner]

I'm sure the Germans wouldn't mind you starting a referendum to join the new Rei... er Republic.

I'd prefer it, actually. It would end the political instability in Czexico (I love the term ) and help me learn German. If we get the same level of autonomy as the other federal states (Freistaat Böhmen und Mähren? ), I wouldn't mind joining the Reichpublic

 

[Perfection]

Czexico (I love the term )

I DON'T GET IT!

 

[GoodSarmatian]

The successor party to the former East Germany ruling party (SED) die Linke (the Left) has gotten a boost from recent state elections in the Saarland and Thuringia.

Aw, come on. Calling Die Linke the successor party of the SED is like calling the CDU the successor party of the NSDAP.
There are a lot of former memberrs of the old party, but it's still unfair and misleading.

 

[Godwynn]

Aw, come on. Calling Die Linke the successor party of the SED is like calling the CDU the successor party of the NSDAP.
There are a lot of former memberrs of the old party, but it's still unfair and misleading.

Er, I did not mean to be misleading.

The party is in a round-about way the successor to the SED, following the merger of die Linke.PDS and the Labour and Social Justice Party.

 

[Winner]

From what I've seen, their rhetorics is similar to that of our Commies who are direct successors of the totalitarian-era Communist party. It may be richer in other forms of extreme left, but it is still essentially an Eastern German mutation of the "good old" communist party.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

No, it's not. The PDS might have been the successor party of the SED but Die Linke has many WASG and former SPD members and I daresay in west German states they have hardly any former SED people.
Like I said: It's a SED successor in the same way the CDU is a NSDAP successor.

 

[kronic]

What is very interesting, is that this time around CDU/CSU+FDP could get a majority of seats while having less votes than SPD+Greens+Linke. It is for this reason why the Federal Constitutional Court actually ruled the current electoral law unconstitutional...but only demanded it to be changed by 2011. One wonders why... In any case, it makes a CDU/CSU/FDP victory a lot more likely. But it'll be interesting to watch how public reaction to a victory based on an unconstitutional law will be.

If they fail to achieve a majority of seats it'll once again be interesting as the Greens rule out to support CDU/CSU/FDP, the FDP rules out to support SPD/Greens and the SPD rules out to form a coalition with Die Linke. Another Grand Coalition is looming...

Also interesting: no possible coalition would currently have a majority in the Bundesrat. CDU/CSU+FDP+Greens could achieve the smallest majority possible (35/69) if the Greens were to opt for a coalition with CDU and FDP in the Saarland (instead of a coalition with SPD and Linke).

The Germans tend to vote extremists in a crisis.

And that is rubbish.

 

[mitsho]

Er, I did not mean to be misleading.

The party is in a round-about way the successor to the SED, following the merger of die Linke.PDS and the Labour and Social Justice Party.

It is misleading in my opinion because "die Linke" was made up by two parties, one of them being the successor party to the SED, while the other being the left part of the split of the SPD (as the latter seemed to go too much into the centre).

The reason for the success is not the "SED-successor" who only does good in the new bundesländer while the reason for the growth of the Linke is more due to wins in the old bundesländer, like Saarland, as you mentioned.

That's why it is misleading in my opinion...

(with the expansion of the party due to the split of the SPD to whole Germany, it has become a national party, in western germany, there wasn't much SED...)

On the topic, I want to have the Tigerentenkoalition, just because it sounds so funny ;-) Seriously, I do not think this will be a game-changing election, there just doesn't seem to be much "topical" discussion going on in my viewpoint as an outsider.

 

[Echse]

I just hope we don´t get a CDU/FDP government. This really would be a worst case scenario.

 

[Winner]

I just hope we don´t get a CDU/FDP government. This really would be a worst case scenario.

Why...?

 

[dot]

Why...?

Because a CDU/FDP coalition is most likely to broaden the gap between the very rich and the very poor.

 

[Echse]

Why...?

many reasons... i don´t know where to start^^

Firstly the FDP stands for the liberal economic policies that are guilty for the financial crisis.
Furthermore do they want cut down parts of our social security system like job protection.
They want to delay the nuclear phaseout or even build new nuclear reactors.
They want to lower the taxes and don´t care how our national debt rises.
They combined with the CDU remind me and everyone of my age and older of the 16 years under Helmut Kohl our chancellor from 82 to 98.

 

[dot]

many reasons... i don´t know where to start^^

Firstly the FDP stands for the liberal economic policies that are guilty for the financial crisis.
Furthermore do they want cut down parts of our social security system like job protection.
They want to delay the nuclear phaseout or even build new nuclear reactors.
They want to lower the taxes and don´t care how our national debt rises.
They combined with the CDU remind me and everyone of my age and older of the 16 years under Helmut Kohl our chancellor from 82 to 98.

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The only good thing about that coalition is that it might get people interested in politics again - - when they're taking to the streets.