Elections in Germany

Well, in the greater context this is kind of regional, you might have heard of Germany before, but its not a state of the US, so I don`t know if you knew that we have some kind of democracy lately, not this communism or faschism anymore..

Well, its election day. We are voting at two different institutions - directly for a candidate (who might get absolute majority in her/his electoral district, in which case s/he goes to the Bundestag directly or .. well, that depends on the number of second-list-votings for the party in concern) and for a party.

The party with most votings has the right to pronounce the Bundeskanzler, although this is nearly settled if the votings go along the predicted outcomes - Angela Merkel is the most likely candidate for the next term of 4 years. The Bundeskanzler can be nominated without restrictions in holding the office for a repeated number of times. Helmut Kohl was Bundeskanzler (chancellor) for more than 16 years.

We have several parties which have predictably more than 5% of the votes, which is the necessary limit to enter the Bundestag. We have

CDU/CSU
The conservative party, although in us-american terms they are more like the democrats. They stood for 237 of 622 seats in the Bundestag and ruled together with the FDP. Angela Merkel is a member of the CDU, but not their designated leader. The CSU is available only in Bavaria, which is deemed a blessing by the other federal states.. Yes, another opinionated comment by me, sorry.

FDP
The liberal party, which is exactly what they are. In my opinion a devious bunch of people, ready to sell their grandmother for moneys.. Well, just my 2 cents. They occupied 93 of 622 seats, adding up to a majority of 330 seats together with the CDU/CSU.

SPD
The socialistic party, although they are leaning more the center and sometimes to the center/right part of the political spectrum, in my opinion. Reached 146 seats in the last elections. In the consensual feeling they are the most likely party to add up to the CDU/CSU to reach the wanted absolute majority in the Bundestag to elect the Bundeskanzler - as the FDP is thought that they will have difficulties to reach the needed 5% of votings to be qualified for the Bundestag.

Die Grünen
Well, in the eighties they started as a quite radical form of ecologicaly oriented party, nowadays they are spending a lot of time and ressources to lose that image mostly, because they want to be voted for by more than the 3-4% of the population which are still vehemently ecologically oriented. Last week some higher member thought about using the taxes on cars not for some eco-valuable target, but for the refurbishment of the streets and bridges.. Well, political realism demanded some revaluations of ideas and ideals, I guess..

Die Linken
Those are the left, taking away votes from the SPD, which has changed to some kind of SPD(CDU-alike), being to "right" for true followers of the idea of a party for the working class. They are predecessors of the PDS and WASG, the former a predecessor of the SED (East-Germany's communist party), the latter a party formed of the more radical-left members of the SPD.

There are several other parties, but the 5 mentioned above have the highest chances to be voted into the Bundestag.

Today at 5 pm UTC the polling places will be closed and the first election-projections will be made public. We will see.

Star and Flag for waving yours. Good to know! Thanks.

P

There are so many good small parties. maybe I should support one of them.

DIE PARTEI wants to rebuild the berlin Wall, put Merkel in a cage and frack the minister for environment.

The BERGPARTEI/ÜBERPARTEI is inspired bei the art of Dadaism.

Then we have the NICHTWÄHLERPARTEI for people, who don't want to vote and the "NEIN!"-Partei, for those, who want to vote No!

But I am also ogling with the BAYERN PARTEI, they want Bavaria to seperate from the Federal Republic and somehow I like this idea.

Here is a good overview of all parties - delivered by Al Jazeera...

German Parties 2013

So, it's as good as over. Angela Merkel is not chaancellor anymore, instead it will be Angela Merkel. The queen is dead, long live the queen!

Still it was a thrill. The liberal FDP has faded away. For the first time they did not reach the 5%. They were the party that was part of most German governments, because they were the kingmakers during the time when only CDU/CSU or SPD had a chance to reign with their help. Now they are out of the game.

CDU/CSU did not get enough votes to reign on their own. And their partner FDP is gone. So they have to form a coalition with SPD or maybe the Green Party. They also could cooperate with the Left, but even the SPD and the Green Party don't want to cooperate withb them, what is very stupid, because right now the SPD, Green Party and the Left could take over the government. Obviously SPD and Green Party don't want to take rsponsibility. So it is Merkel's job again.

Another surprise was the AfD, a neo-liberal party, that wants to quit the EU. Existing just a few months they came out as big as the losing FDP ended. Many FDP voters ran to the AfD. Both are unimportant now for the next legislative period.

Not the worst outcome after there was nothing special to expect at all.

reply to post by ManFromEurope

Interesting to know the way it works.

I spent some time in Germany years ago. Loved it but I was young and unconcerned with politics and really didn't learn too much other than some basic words and sentences to get around. So again thanks for the lesson.

What about the pirates? You guys forgot about the pirates! Anyway, I didn't vote for any of these dumbass parties because in the end, they're all the same. FDP received their worst result in elections ever and in return, as their very own result, they said that they will change their manifesto extensively but, isn't that hypcrisy? And I mean hypocrisy in every sense. Either you stand for something or your manifesto consists out of nothing anyway and FDP clearly has proved, consisting as well as standing for, nothing, except wanting good results when it's eclection time again and of course, therefore they want the money plus the power. Like they all want the money, like they all want to be or stay in power. So on the one hand these hypocrites, calling themselves politicians , promise to support the families more for instance and on the other hand, they immediately and only to get enough votes would sell their own mother at the same moment. Unfortunately, business as usual, hypocrisy as usual, not only here in Germany...

Merkel rethinking of immigration policy is just a fraud for elction campaign. EU conrinuity of govt, unwilling to take proper action against illegal immigration and, aim at higher unemployment rate and hightened criminality in Germnay.