German Federal Elections 2009

[False Morel]

On Sept. the 27th, the federal elections (Bundestagswahl) in Germany will be held.
Unfortunately the CDU/FDP coalition are so far ahead of the other SPD/Greens coalition.

If anybody interested in this topic, let the thread be the opportunity for any potential discussions, debates, and comments.

Anyway, for the sake of efficiency and time sparing, here are some brief and informative wiki links regarding the topic:

German federal election, 2009 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elections in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Politics of Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On Sept. the 13th, a TV debate between the current Chancellor and her challenger Steinmeier was held. It was a chance for the latter to prove himself and give his party a needed push popularity-wise, as in attract and try to convince the undecided to vote for SPD.
The debate was heavily criticized, first since the chancellor position isn't directly elected by the people, but by the parliament. Secondly, other parties representatives were excluded. And also it was viewed as more of a discussion with the four debate moderators than an actual debate between the two.
Anyway, as the small surveys showed, Steinmeier leaded Merkel in the first 45 minutes, as he was conisdered to be more competent and convincing, while Merkel made it a tie after a survey was done over the whole 90 minutes debate.

As a result, SPD need more effort and luck to win those elections as it seems!

[dodzi]

Go SPD/Greens!

[Salome]

Would hate to see a socialist Germany!! But we need someone more competent than Merkel!

[dodzi]

Originally Posted by Salome

Would hate to see a socialist Germany!! But we need someone more competent than Merkel!

You live in Germany?

Besides, Germany is already socialist... It's got a very social-democratic system, has already had the socialist party in power for many years, and its current "Grand Coalition" (in Lebanese, "National Unity Government" ) includes one right party, 2 center parties, 1 center-left party and 2 left parties)!

[False Morel]

Originally Posted by Salome

Would hate to see a socialist Germany!! But we need someone more competent than Merkel!

Who are "we"?
Why would you hate a socialist Germany?!

[False Morel]

The Union/FDP coalition did manage to win the majority of the parliamentary seats (332/622) seats, and hence, will get the government all for themselves for the coming four years with Merkel being a chancellor for another term of course. And the SPD/Grüne coalition lost horribly to say the least! Although, the Union (CDU and CSU, their sister party in Bayern state) got their worst result (33.8%) since the establishment of the federal republic in 1949! While FDP made their best results ever at what was described as a "gigantic" 14.6% for them.

SPD got their worst results (23%) since their very beginning, and they're going through real chaos right now. They are the only ones who lost seats after the elections (-76 seats!!!). Müntefering, the head of the party, is already out, but after some drama, and as it seems they got some big problems moving forward!

A small remark to stress on, as it seems, the ruling parties of the Grand Coalition following the 2005 tight elections results, CDU/CSU and SPD, lost some ground, the latter with a much bigger margin, while the Opposition parties, Grüne, FDP, and Die Linke, all gained more support; FPD being the ones profited the most..

One surprise remains mysterious: the voting turnout being the lowest at 70.8% since the first federal elections!
It hit its record in 1972 at 91.1% and its lowest at 77.7% in 2005.