Nobody has mentioned SPD/Greens/FDP yet. Could that happen? It would have the vote, possibly. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Actually, the major of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit - who maybe you read of for his spectacular self-outing as a homosexual, at least I saw the story making waves the British press - used this as a clever trick: to make his coalition with the PDS more easily accepted, he first 'tried' to form an SPD-Greens-FDP coalition, and let the insurmountable Greens-FDP divisions play out and lead to failure. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
First they had an election campaign with the slogan "Partei der Besserverdienenden" (party of the high-earners) - can you get more disgustingly elitist than that? Now, since that led to low poll numbers, party enfant terrible Mölleman and new leader Westerwelle devised a new strategy of populism. First, make the party hip among young people! This was the birth of the Spaßpartei (fun party), of unserious politics, and non-politics - Westerwelle appearing as guest in the Big Brother container... when this began to run out, Mölleman took aim at the old far-right and new far-right Muslim vote, with a borderline anti-semitic campaign, which was also financed with black money - when investigators got close to him, he committed a spectacular suicide (jumping from an airplane and not opening his parachute). With populism over, and Westerwelle weakened, only sucking up to business interests remained. I don't understand why they get 7% in the polls.
Finally, I mention something that would have saved the liberals, but regrettably, didn't work out. A few years ago a group of students in Berlin, fed up with federal politics, thought that things could be changed only by way of a hostile takeover of a small party. They choose the Liberals - and started a mass movement to join the party all across Germany. Unfortunately, the old party members held against - and erected barriers to new applicants, so the whole thing floundered. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I had heard some of the antics of the new leaders, but had not realised that they had pushed it in so many unpleasant directions. I did look at it more like the party of Genscher, indeed, and a lot more social liberal.
As my image of the German Greens is Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who is also known in France, I thought that they could be close but understand that they would not be close from what you write... In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Have you read a translation of his fiery exchange with Robert Kagan (the neocon of "Europeans from Venus, Americans from Mars" fame) on the eve of the Iraq war? It was hilarious and visionary at the same time - apart from de Villepin at the UN and until Galloway, he was the only one to go for a full ideological confrontation. (Also his debate with Richard Perle a bit earlier.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
