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Am I missing something, or what about the fact that this IS democracy? The people did not want what Merkel had to offer...the CDU did not make the sale. And though they weren't entirely happy with Schroeder, overall the election showed a move to the Left.

More or less true but with a major caveat - about 90% of the voters cast their ballots for parties that either supported moderate liberal reforms or radical ones. While I'm sure that plenty of those did so for other reasons, I am very skeptical about the idea that there is a mandate for truly left wing economic policies.  That makes it virtually impossible to get a left wing government in Germany since for both principled and pragmatic reasons it makes no sense for the Linke to join a coalition, even if that weren't unthinkable for other reasons.  

I also don't see a move to the left in terms of voting as opposed to parliamentary representation. Add up the percentages received by the PDS/WASG, SPD, and Greens in this election and the previous one and the numbers are identical - the SPD lost 4.2%, the Greens 0.5% and the Linke picked up 4.7%. On the right we see a net decline of 0.9%

by MarekNYC on Wed Sep 21st, 2005 at 01:17:57 PM EST
Some reforms are probably needed: seems everyone agrees on that. It seems they don't agree that moving towards a corporate welfare state is the correct reform.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Sep 21st, 2005 at 04:27:54 PM EST
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