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Looks like the Linke has come out of nowhere. In the lists from 1999 and 2004 they are not even mentioned. Looks like they are gaining quite a bit of their votes from the SPD. But the CDU seems to be loosing too, compared with 1999 and 2004.

DoDo, what is your hunch for the German elections next year?

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Sep 4th, 2008 at 02:15:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
By extrapolation of present trends, CDU/CSU+FDP government... But in all German federal elections I have followed so far, extrapolation of trends didn't work, there was always some scandal or stupidity or peformance that changed the chances of one party in a major way. So who knows - maybe Wolfgang Tiefensee will launch a chancellorship bid out of nowhere, maybe Merkel gets personally tainted in a major scandal, maybe a new Ypsilanti government in Hessen and a shock result in Bavaria will double the Left Party vote... or, on the opposite, maybe the SPD will fall apart, maybe the CDU wins supermajority, maybe Koch or Wulff attempt a successful coup against Merkel...

So it's somewhat like guessing the oil price.

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

by DoDo on Thu Sep 4th, 2008 at 02:35:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
In a dynamic environment statistical trend extrapolation doesn't cut it.  Asymmetrical information: scandals, stupidities, & etc, come from nowhere to radically alter the situation.
by ATinNM on Thu Sep 4th, 2008 at 03:07:52 PM EST
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