Usually the campaigns tend to be a bit boring, as there are not many show elements involved. This time there was one "TV-Duell" between Angela Merkel and her contender Peer Steinbrück plus there were quite a few of roundtable discussions with top politicians of the leading parties CDU/CSU, SPD, Green Party, "The Lefties" and FDP. The voter had lots of opportunities for an informed decision.
As usually no party in Germany gets a majority it is standard that there are coalitions between two or more parties to reach a joint majority. Although it was obvious for months that "Mutti" (Mommy) Angela Merkel would continue her leadership for another four years the big question was whether she could continue working with the liberal party FDP, because this junior partner was ailing significantly in the last few years.
And indeed, when the first prognosis was presented at 6PM it was clear that the FDP would not reach the necessary 5% of votes to be allowed into the Bundestag. A second party (AfD) got close to 5%, but did not make it either, and there were a few other parties with a total of 6% that did not even get close to that threshold. So all in all almost 16% of the votes did not have any impact on the future seating in the federal parliament which was unheard of before in Germany! This situation had the strange effect that the CDU/CSU - although "only" at 42% of the votes - was close to reaching the majority.
In the end they did not make it though, and now there will be a very difficult phase of negotiations between Merkel and the SPD (or the Green party). In theory there could be a coalition of SPD, Lefties and Green Party, but this seems highly unlikely. If no majority can be found within the next months it could happen that there might be another election. The next weeks will be very interesting!
Politics are fascinating across the world. I can only imagine the cost of a second election to the tax payor.
ReplyDeleteIt is too early to tell right now, but the CSU (the Bavarian branch of the CDU) does not want to talk to the Green Party, and the SPD is (or acts?) reluctant. This will take a while!
DeleteI learned a new word today!
ReplyDelete...and just to make sure that you pronounce it correctly: it is pronounced like hoodie, but with a sharp 't' instead of the soft 'd'! :-)
DeleteI learned a new word too! I don't think that I've heard anything on the local news. The U.S. media is all about self....
ReplyDeleteBTW, congrats on at least a temp position!
In fact we checked cnn on election night, and all news were about bombings and massacres, and a child that was killed on an airport baggage claim in Spain!
DeleteI'm with Richard - our media is so censured we don't hear of what is going on elsewhere. had no idea you had elections going on. May it not turn out to be as messy as they are here.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we have the same problem in Germany. Voter Turnout was at 73% which means that no party reached as many voters as there are non-voters here!
ReplyDeleteInteresting quote about the campaign budget - especially when you think about that Obama and Romney blew through roughly a billion dollars ... each!
ReplyDeleteSo, just to throw in a few more numbers for comparison...
ReplyDeleteLooking at the results of the Alberta Provincial Election in 2012, where the PCs won 61 out of 87 seats (that's 70% of the seats) with a popular vote of only 44%... Where would've Alberta's electoral system put Mutti in Germany?
And, maybe more important, are the remaining 56% with only 30% of parliament seats in Alberta properly represented in parliament?
Food for thought...