The Greens will probably be an important part of the next German government and might even get the chancellorship. I had a virtual chat about the party with Ruairi Casey, who used some of my words. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/19/could-a-green-party-chancellor-lead-germany
This is excellent
A mere three hours after the event, it’s obviously too early to write something coherent about the three state elections that were held in Germany today. So let’s try it anyway: For the time being, Germany has a viable Radical Right Populist Party. A result of ~24% in the Eastern state of Sachsen-Anhalt is a…
In the last couple of weeks, much has been said and written about the turning tide in German public opinion on refugees, the growing rift between Merkel and the CSU, the potential of a back-bench rebellion against the chancellor and party leader etc. But one of the most interesting (in my book) details is buried…
On Friday, the state parliament at Erfurt voted in Bodo Ramelow as Minister-President of Thuringia. He is the first member of the Left party to hold such an office, backed by the first ‘red-red-green’ (Left/SPD/Greens) coalition ever. 25 years after the fall of the wall, that is still a highly controversial constellation. Ramelow has been…
By and large, the online “Green Primary” ahead of the Euro 2014 election was a failure. Deutsche Welle has a short feature on this experiment, in which I give my five (Euro) cent. Der Beitrag zur “Primary” ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar. Photo by DBarefoot
The new CDU-Green coalition in Hesse opens up a whole host possibilities beyond the entrenched pattern of party competition in Germany. Volker Bouffier emerged as an unexpectedly shrewd political operator who presented his party – in Hesse, the other Länder and perhaps even in Berlin – with new options beyond the unloved Great Coalition and the outdated CDU/FDP formats. Plus lots of interesting stuff about names in German Politics
The CDU/CSU/SPD coalition talks are set to come to a conclusion tonight. The more interesting question however is if and how the September election will affect the party system in the medium term. My reading is that the high levels of segmentation that we have seen in the past are becoming unsustainable.
The Polls [caption id="attachment_12655" align="alignleft" width="300"] Support for the Major German Parties, Estimates and Predictions (Week 35, 2013)[/caption] Exactly three weeks before the 18th Bundestag election, it’s time for another look at the polls. This weekend brings six new entries: One late result from week 33 that was only published a week ago, three polls…
Last week’s post on Merkel’s very good chances to win a third term created a bit of a stir. This week, I’m back with nine new polls (conducted between August 6 and August 19 by six different companies), which all point into the same direction: The probability of Merkel continuing as chancellor is 98 to 99 per cent.