The result

The Germans have voted and rocked the German party system. The election night was like a thriller – including a murder. After the voting boots had closed at six o’clock in the evening, the first prognosis indicated that the liberal party (Free Democrats) would not make it into parliament. At about eight o’clock in the evening, it looked as if the Christian Democrats would even get an absolute majority of seats. Taken together, the Social Democrats and Greens who had fought for a change in government could not obtain as many seats as the Christian Democrats alone. The Left Party did make it, the Alliance for Germany, a right-wing conservative party, came close to the five-percent hurdle but finally missed it. The prognoses proved right except for the short time span in the evening when they assumed a majority for the Christian Democrats. Weiterlesen →