2013 Elections in Germany

[DL]

I don't see what the issue is. In the Netherlands and in all the Scandinavian countries, social democratic parties routinely form coalitions or have vague support agreements with far left/Communist parties. Why is this so taboo in Germany?

[DL]

What's the story behind the CDU leader in Lower Soxony having such a Scottish sounding name?

[DL]

This must give the opposition quite a large majority in the Bundesrat as well?

[DL]

Because we are still 9 months away from an election and polls right now are not about doing election eve forecasts of what the actual results will be - at this stage they are measurements of how people say they will vote if an election were held today. Its not up to a polling company to arbitrarily decide that based on what happened in Lower Saxony - from now on in every poll we should subtract 4 points from the CDU and give it to the FDP.

[DL]

Interesting that in Germany the gender gap seems to have women more rightwing than men. In North America women tend to be significantly more leftwing than men in their voting behaviour because they tend to see rightwing parties like the GOP or the Conservatives as being led by "mean guys" who want to savagely cut social programs and health care etc...

[DL]

First ZDF poll after the election:

43% CDU/CSU (+1.5)
26% SPD (+0.3)
10% Left (+1.4)
  7% Greens (-1.4)
  5% AfD (+0.3)
  3% FDP [-1.8]
  6% Others

One important thing about this poll is that it shows that a second election would not necessarily give Merkel the absolute majority she now lacks - in fact it could make things worse for her since AfD would likely cross the 5% barrier