Regional elections in Hesse and Lower Saxony

Germany's party system has changed so much for the worse that it's worth considering a new system to build more stable majorities, suggests Jürg Delial. "The elections have not only brought about an unpleasant stalemate between the two largest established parties, but also the entrance of the political left, which calls itself the 'Left Party.' It got a foothold in Lower Saxony, too, where the CDU and FDP kept their hold on the government. This has now highlighted the disastrous five-party pattern in West Germany, which is tantamount to the destabilization of the parliamentary system. All established parties treat the Left Party as a bunch of street urchins. But how can a government be formed without them? One practical solution would be a Grand Coalition between the CDU and SPD, clearly a stop-gap method, as the black-red partnership on the federal level has demonstrated numerous times of late."

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