German voters face a bewildering array of possible coalitions
And they get two votes each
HER FRIENDS would kill her if they knew she had considered voting for the Free Democrats (FDP), says Marijana, a 39-year-old arts PR consultant. A lifelong supporter of the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), she had always dismissed the FDP, a small, liberal outfit, as a party for the wealthy few. But Germany’s wide-open election on September 26th is forcing voters to contemplate strange choices. Marijana fears the SPD may join the hard-left Die Linke, which she reckons is unprepared for government, as well as the Greens in a left-wing coalition. Hence the idea of lending one of her votes to the FDP, to bolster the chances of an SPD-Green-FDP “traffic-light” coalition. (Germans get two votes: one for a local MP, and one for a party, apportioned proportionally based on lists.)
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “It’s complicated”
Europe September 4th 2021
- Vladimir Putin’s henchmen target Russia’s universities and students
- German voters face a bewildering array of possible coalitions
- Germany’s election, seen through the bottom of a glass
- The rise and fall of sex-selective abortion in Georgia
- Europe’s latest migrant crisis leaves refugees stuck between two borders
- After Afghanistan, Europe wonders if France was right about America
From the September 4th 2021 edition
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