Oh, and about Election Day...
Detonating bombs, the latest Bayern Munich manager fired, storms ravaging the north...even I must admit that people can forget about more minor stories in Germany, like Election Day.
The fact is, the elections themselves were as predictable as what happens to a seal swimming with sharks...except that the sharks might also end up biting each other, from the looks of things.
A quick summary of the results, then: 32.9% for the CDU, or the Christian Democrats (party color black), still the ruling party under Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is still an almost nine percent drop from the elections of four years ago. Perennial runners up are the Social Democrats or the SPD (party color red) with 20.5% of the vote, or more than five percent less than four years ago. See a pattern here? That's a whopping fourteen percent that went to the minor parties, with SPD already refusing to enter a coalition with the conservatives.
Stepping on the podium for the first time is the notorious AfD (party color blue), the Alternative for Germany, the new right wing party that has Germany emitting a collective gasp. AfD collected 12.9% (almost eight percent higher than 2013) of the vote, and will take their seats in the Bundestag on the opposition's side, since parties both left and right steadfastly refuse to enter any coalition with AfD. In fourth place is the libertarian FDP (party color yellow) with 10.7% of the vote, a gain of over six percent when compared to 2013.
Rounding out the political parties that will claim their seats in Berlin are Die Linke (The Left; party color red-purple) with 9.2% and the Green Party (party color predictably green) with 8.6% of the vote, both slightly higher than four years ago.
The winners of the election are the libertarians and the right wing AfD, while both major political parties, each centrist in outlook, took a beating. Oddly enough, this is where things get interesting, when it comes time to form a coalition. If you do the math, the choices are what you would find at a gas station: super, or super plus.
If the Social Democrats refuse to enter a grand coalition with the conservatives, and the CDU will expel the ranks of Christians from their party before even considering a union with the right wing AfD, what remains? The CDU and the Left (Die Linke) are not compatible, so that's off the table. The only viable option that remains is black-green-yellow, better known as the Jamaica coalition. Black and yellow is nothing unusual, green-yellow, on the other hand, is a combination that is as sour as it looks.
Libertarians and Greens...yikes. On the cover of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Woche journal of the past week, an illustration depicts Merkel, Horst Seehofer (chief of the CDU's sister party, the Bavarian CSU), Chairman Christian Lindner of the FDP, and Cem Özdemir, chairman of the Greens, each sporting dreadlocks and passing a fat joint around, an amusing allusion to the upcoming Jamaica coalition. As funny as that looks, it doesn't nearly match how funny such a coalition might turn out to be once they all take their seats in Berlin.
Not to be outdone for overall drama, Frauke Petry, the face of the right wing AfD, announced her resignation from the party only a few days after the elections. Not to worry, Germans: there is plenty of slapstick guaranteed in the upcoming months and years.
And people always say Germans don't do comedy.
The fact is, the elections themselves were as predictable as what happens to a seal swimming with sharks...except that the sharks might also end up biting each other, from the looks of things.
A quick summary of the results, then: 32.9% for the CDU, or the Christian Democrats (party color black), still the ruling party under Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is still an almost nine percent drop from the elections of four years ago. Perennial runners up are the Social Democrats or the SPD (party color red) with 20.5% of the vote, or more than five percent less than four years ago. See a pattern here? That's a whopping fourteen percent that went to the minor parties, with SPD already refusing to enter a coalition with the conservatives.
Stepping on the podium for the first time is the notorious AfD (party color blue), the Alternative for Germany, the new right wing party that has Germany emitting a collective gasp. AfD collected 12.9% (almost eight percent higher than 2013) of the vote, and will take their seats in the Bundestag on the opposition's side, since parties both left and right steadfastly refuse to enter any coalition with AfD. In fourth place is the libertarian FDP (party color yellow) with 10.7% of the vote, a gain of over six percent when compared to 2013.
Rounding out the political parties that will claim their seats in Berlin are Die Linke (The Left; party color red-purple) with 9.2% and the Green Party (party color predictably green) with 8.6% of the vote, both slightly higher than four years ago.
The winners of the election are the libertarians and the right wing AfD, while both major political parties, each centrist in outlook, took a beating. Oddly enough, this is where things get interesting, when it comes time to form a coalition. If you do the math, the choices are what you would find at a gas station: super, or super plus.
If the Social Democrats refuse to enter a grand coalition with the conservatives, and the CDU will expel the ranks of Christians from their party before even considering a union with the right wing AfD, what remains? The CDU and the Left (Die Linke) are not compatible, so that's off the table. The only viable option that remains is black-green-yellow, better known as the Jamaica coalition. Black and yellow is nothing unusual, green-yellow, on the other hand, is a combination that is as sour as it looks.
Libertarians and Greens...yikes. On the cover of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Woche journal of the past week, an illustration depicts Merkel, Horst Seehofer (chief of the CDU's sister party, the Bavarian CSU), Chairman Christian Lindner of the FDP, and Cem Özdemir, chairman of the Greens, each sporting dreadlocks and passing a fat joint around, an amusing allusion to the upcoming Jamaica coalition. As funny as that looks, it doesn't nearly match how funny such a coalition might turn out to be once they all take their seats in Berlin.
Not to be outdone for overall drama, Frauke Petry, the face of the right wing AfD, announced her resignation from the party only a few days after the elections. Not to worry, Germans: there is plenty of slapstick guaranteed in the upcoming months and years.
And people always say Germans don't do comedy.
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