a lot of eating of words has got to happen before any coalition can get off the ground.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

They are idiots both, if they can't compromise to work together with each other and both with the SPD, IMO.

Heh, based on what common ground do you imagine them to go into a coalition? I can't see any. (Civil rights could have been one, but FDP is rather silent about those lately...)

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

And for a good reason. What you have to keep in mind is, the small parties (Greens and FDP) have to constantly fight for survival, since there is a 5% threshold on federal and most statewide elections - fall short of that threshold even by one vote, and you ain't gonna be represented in parliament at all. And FDP and Greens are direct competitors. So entering a coalition together is a highly dangerous move for both of them. It's almost a death match - if one of them were to benefit from such an alliance, the other would likely go under.

If you can't convince them, confuse them. (Harry S. Truman)

well, politics is as much about ego's as it is about guiding the state it wants to govern to a better future....