Germany held federal elections on September 27. It appears the Christian Democratic/Christian Social Union Party got 33.8%, and will form a coalition with the Free Democratic Party, which got 14.6%, its best showing ever. The Social Democratic Party got 23.1%, its worst showing ever. The Left Party, the only party that campaigned on removing all German troops immediately from Afghanistan, got 11.9%; the Green Party got 10.6%.
The Greens don’t want to remove all troops from Afghanistan?
I just amended the post by adding the word “immediately”.
Rather key to mention that Germany has proportional representation. In a U.S.-style winner-take-all elections, most of those votes for the smaller parties wouldn’t have resulted in representation.
The Germany system is a “mixed member” one, as used in other nations and regions like New Zealand and Scotland: about half of seats are elected from single-member districts by winner-take-all, the other half are added in from party lists to make the overall parliament more reflective of overall party preferences.
The total for the three left parties adds up to 45.6 percent. The total for the two conservative parties adds up to 48.4 percent (only 2.8 percent difference). If you took some of the Christian Social Union votes (the name does have “Social” in it), you could probably make it even or reverse the standings. Are there any totals for the smaller parties yet?
This is exactly the system we need here. In Germany you get a higher voter turnout because the voters have multiple real choices that matter. Proportional Representation is the only way to go.
Why can’t reformists, independents and 3rd parties band together and get a PR proposition on some state ballots around the country? If we can get it passed in just a few states it will crack open the dam of two party corruption.
Phil, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria is generally more conservative than their sister-party, the Christian Democratic Union, so thinking about the name “Social” in this case won’t get you very far.
Phil Sawyer, the Christian Social Union is actually the most conservative of all these parties. They operate only in Bavaria due to historical reasons and are the equivalent of the Christian Democratic Union which operates in the rest of the country. The two are basically the same party in practice (but even if that wasn’t the case it would make little sense for the CSU to ever ally with the leftist parties as the CSU members of the CDU/CSU tend to be the most conservative).
For those curious, this is about the spectrum I’d put the parties on:
CSU–CDU–FDP–SPD–GRÃœNEN–DIE LINKE
Notable smaller party showings included the Pirate Party at 2% and the NPD (the modern version of the Nazi Party) at 1.5%. Since German PR rules require parties to reach a 5% threshold in order to enter the Bundestag neither is a serious player on the political scene.
#5 Many reformer fanatics are doing their EVIL IRV machinations.
NO lawyers with any brains doing a proper gerrymander case.
Result – the brain dead minority rule gerrymanders continue.
Half the votes in half the gerrymander districts = about 25 percent minority rule by Donkey or Elephant FANATIC extremists — in every house of every State legislature and the U.S.A. House of Reps. — and even worse in the gerrymander U.S.A. Senate.
P.R. and A.V. NOW.
For Phil Sawyer, in addition to the correct comments about the CSU being a sister party to the CDU, all of the other parties have ruled out any possibility of coalition with The Left, due to them basically being the remnants of the former East German Communist Party.
I wouldn’t really consider the SDP a real loss since the Left gained quite a bit.
The Left party isn’t predominantly the old E German CP. In the regions of former East Germany it has support from former CPers, but Oskar Lafontaine is a former federal Minister of Finance, and former chair of the Social Democrats. A lot of the Left voters are former SPDers and former Greens.
The German Free Democrats support bringing the German troops home from Afghanistan. We have run news of this on http://www.antiwar.com
The Free Democrats also back de-regulation, tax cuts, legalizing marijuana and liberalism on social issues.
The overwhelming majority of votes for The Left Party were cast by former East German Communists. In the past they only got support in the West from the little Communist, Trotskyists & Maoist groups, They also got votes from Greens who thought the Green Party was becoming too liberal(in a right-wing sense) The defection of Oskar LaFontaine did bring a few leftists out of the SDP, but they remain a minority compared with the East German Reds.
It does not matter to me, in this regard, what the alignment of the parties is. I was talking about the votes only. The word, “Social,” in Christian Social Union carries the connotation of social responsibilty. As a matter of fact, so does the word, “Christian,” in both Christian Democratic Union; and Christian Social Union. I was trying to point out what I thought that the people were voting for.
We do not always get what we want when we vote. In the general election of 1968, I voted for Richard Nixon for president. I was a young Republican (who would have voted for Eugene J. McCarthy had he won the Democratic nomination). Mr. Nixon campaigned on a platform of peace, prosperity, and honest politics. Remember the slogan, “This time vote like your whole world depends on it”? Well, we got the prosperity part (not counting the continuing rise in inflation due to the continued too much military spending); however, we did not get peace and honest government. As much I as I dislike speaking ill of the dead, I still have to say that I think that Richard Nixon betrayed all of those who voted for him – and everyone else too.
Thanks for the story and the comments.
Well informed.
A few additional thoughts.
I would put the Greens, with their tradition of “wert Konservative” = values conservatives clearly to the right of the German Democrats aka Social Dems.
Three German state elections, in Saarland, Thuringen, and Sachsen just 30 days ago also had a strong impact on the federal results Sunday. Oscar Lafontaine, who I have known since his days as Mayor of Saarbruecken 30 years ago, delivered a strong vote in those state elections to the Leftists. Oscar’s impact on mainstreaming the Leftists can not be overstated. Oscar made the leftist creditable in the West. Oscar was Governor/Minister Praesident for about 20 years in Saarland, and is still much loved. That jumped their federal polls up about 3 percent to the 11.9% being reported tonight. That compares to the Green Party’s 10.7%.
The Greens were hurt by there poor performances in those state elections, as they had been polling as high as 14%.
This is still the best ever result for the Green Party in Germany in a Federal Bundestag election. They will have a record 67 members of the Bundestag.
The Greens also advocate for increasing support for civil government in Afghanistan, but do strongly support pulling out the military. The Greens solution is non militaristic.
As for the Free Democrats in Germany, I think the are the closest thing the Germans have to the American Libertarians.
There are been some really Great Free Democrats: Hildegard Hamm-Brueckner was a beautiful member of the Bundestag, I knew, and as a reporter was able to observe her often at work in the Bundestag. Gifted speaker. Kind. Courage by the truck load. When the FDP abandoned the Helmut Schmidt SPD/FDP coalition Frau Hamm-Brueckner gave one of the Greatest speeches, I’ve ever seen protesting what her own party was about to do. Green Party leader Petra Kelly was moved to tears by that speech.
Der Spiegel Magazin Founder Rudolph Augenstein also served briefly in the Bundestag for the FDP. Walter Scheel was outstanding.
The FDP has also had some terrible rogues. It is that tendency of the FDP to immoral raw greed that is it’s greatest threat. If this new CDU/CSU/FDP coaltion falls – in the years ahead – it will likely be the result of another in a long ugly line of such FDP greed fueled messes. It’s a danger for the FDP.
It’s an opportunity for the Greens, who opinion polls showed were the most respected of all the German parties for their honesty about issues, programs, and taxes in the campaign.