Well the Links party is keen to say, that they nearly got there in the West 4.9% and it was the East with its 25% that got them up to their margin.
They have markedly improved and are the real winners of this election - not the FDP.

One thought on them and the declining CDU, there is a bigger lefty half in Germany than righty half, but I still think, this is not going to be sustainable in the West, They hope to enter some of the Laender parliaments, and that will really be the test form. So the Jury is still out I think.

Also, their biggest voter potential was the 45-59 year old, those that lost out in the Wende - accross the board, of those that went to the election for the first time it wsa the SPD that got most with 39% and Links is in fifth place, below their potential, if you think about radical youth and such.

I don;t know, I think their policy questions are right, their policy practices are Janus-headed and their party as such, well , well, they build the Wall.