2012 Elections in Germany

[ZuWo]

"Das können Sie alles senden!"

Horst Seehofer (CSU), Prime Minister of Bavaria, didn't mince his words and was surprisingly direct and sincere about the problems of the governing coalition and the defeat in NRW. He's probably not going to help the coalition, but he may have scored some points on a personal level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS3qyx8drQk

(only in German)

[ZuWo]

I was surprised when I heard the news that Merkel fired Röttgen. I always had the impression that Merkel likes to be surrounded by rather weak ministers and party officials who don't pose any threat to her (and Röttgen was definitely weak and powerless after the NRW election), so I think it is plausible that something really bad happened between the two. Or Seehofer threatened that the CSU would leave the coalition if Röttgen remains in office, who knows.

[ZuWo]

So when wil a credible and actually left-wing party emerge in Germany ?...

I don't think left voters can complain about a lack of choice in Germany ... you have the SPD, the Greens and Die Linke, which cover the entire range of the left political spectrum (from the realistic center-left to the extreme left). On the contrary, the interesting question is whether there is a chance that a serious democratic party right of the CDU/CSU could emerge. The current CDU/CSU can't be considered right-wing, so in theory there is room for such a party on the right.

[ZuWo]

So when wil a credible and actually left-wing party emerge in Germany ?...

I don't think left voters can complain about a lack of choice in Germany ... you have the SPD, the Greens and Die Linke, which cover the entire range of the left political spectrum (from the realistic center-left to the extreme left).

And the Pirates. Though note that lack of choice was not what the complaint was about. The issue is entirely with the quality of the choices.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

That's just wrong. It's understandable that people might think so, but it's wrong. Unless PvdV and such are considered "serious" and "democratic", and even then it's exceedingly iffy - the CDU esp. locally has the populist but by self-assessment respectable right pretty well covered, much better than the CDA or than the French right used to have. Better than the Tories in most parts, too, though things vary quite a bit between parts of Britain on that account.
 And where occasionally it doesn't, you get some local party led by a CDU or FDP renegade, either with no intention towards regional (let alone national) politics, or with at least one glorious fail attempt under his belt already.

Well, I don't know anything about local politics in Germany, but what I was getting at was the federal CDU and my impression that it is not right-wing at all. You have a CDU-led federal government which wants more public day care centers for children, pushes for denuclearization, is very pro-European, open towards the idea of a minimum wage ... I'm not saying the CDU is left, but I would not be surprised if there was a substantial number of conservatives who are alienated by these policies of the federal CDU. And haven't there been more or less serious rumours about Friedrich Merz and his potential plan to found a new federal party right of the CDU?

[ZuWo]

When will we see the FDP overtake Die Linke again?

[ZuWo]

Judging by Steinbrück's comments directed at Switzerland in the ongoing tax row and from other things I have seen about him, I assume Steinbrück is a politician who is not afraid of saying what is on his mind. This may be popular among parts of the German electorate but he could turn out to be an unmitigated disaster on the international diplomatic stage.

[ZuWo]

I think it's hilarious that despite the unpopularity of the governing coalition the CDU and FDP combined still manage to attract as much support as the red-green alternative percentage-wise.