Saturday, I agree with you that the Linke as a whole does not share Lafontaine's beliefs. And as I said in a discussion with DoDo I do not find their program extremist. It is to the left of my own views, but so what, the FDP is well to the right of mine but I don't have a principled objection to them being in government (a Mollemann fronted FDP would be a different story). What I object to is a party whose Western side is represented by Lafontaine, and whose Eastern side is full of ex SED functionaries.  Clearly you don't find that reason to boycott them. Fair enough. However, I'd think you'd at least understand the reasoning behind it - it is analogous to a moderate right winger rejecting a party dominated by ex Pinochet or Franco operatives and a racist as the most visible non-ex dictatorship flunky. The good thing is that the SED problem will slowly decline as time goes on.