It will be interesting to see where that goes
You have to get five percent of the national vote...to stand in the Bundestag. Then you count in the fact that the majority of Germans are pretty much locked into a party, and don’t flip around much. I live there for over fifteen years and can attest...you just don’t have that many independents.
But the 2013 election is an odd event. There are two new parties that will come into play: the anti-Euro party, and the Pirate Party.
Based on some state elections and general statistics....the Pirate Party probably won’t get more than three percent of the national vote (most voters will be eighteen to twenty-five years old). As for the Anti-Euro Party? They might get five percent, and make their way for a few members in the Bundestag.
This would create a problem because Merkel has to forge a relationship with some other party/parties....to get the fifty percent of the Bundestag, in order to run the country. She knows that she’ll come close to forty percent of the national vote. The question is....who do forge relations with? And I’m guessing the anti-Euro party won’t be one of the partners.
I fear it will go to a Forth Reich. Germany wants her place in the sun. Lets hope the new Germany will be more like the second Reich than the third.