Angela Merkel, the enigma.

[German guy]

Why does the FDP score so low? Didn't they do over 10% in the last elections? I thought they were among the top 5 largest parties in Parliament? Is it because of the scandals surrounding members of the FDP?

Short answer: The FDP screwed up big time, mostly because they failed to get through most of their promises, and because they were constantly struggling with in-fights.

Also. since germany is mixed member representation, I have 2 questions.

If a party doesn't get 5% ,what happens to the votes the people gave to them? So if a party gets 4.9%, they don't get in... who gets the 4.9%? How does Germany handle this?

These votes are lost.

All seats are just distributed among the parties that make more than 5%. That's why the CDU/CSU has *maybe* the prospect of winning a majority of seats with 42%-43% of the votes only.

And say, the FDP, they have people running in disctricts. If one of their people gets voted to office in a district as it were, but his party fails to get 5% to enter the parliament, does he get to have his seat in parliament or not?

Yes. Whenever a party wins a seat with a plurality in a district, it gets that seat, regardless if they reach 5% nationally or not. That happened to the precursor of the socialist Left Party, the PDS, which won 4.0% of the votes and two districts -- they got just these two seats.

But the FDP is very far from winning any districts at all. Asafaik, they haven't won a district since the 1950s.

 

[German guy]

Oh, man. It looks like the AfD had cannibalized the conservative/liberal vote, and the result may be second Grand Coalition.

(Correct me if I am wrong, but there's another, highly unusual possibility: As things stand right now, according to ARD at least, the CDU has 298 seats, out of 598. They may not need any coalition. Not a good result, from my hard-core liberal (in the FDP sense) perspective, but preferable to most any promiscuous "mixing of colors", if it cannot be Black-and-Gold)

Yes, you are correct. The CDU/CSU may not require a partner.

But on tv, they're showing at the moment the CDU/CSU is lacking two or three seats. That either means a "grand coalition" with the center-left SPD, or "black-green" with the Green Party.

AfD is currently at 4.8%, but if they enter after all, the possibility for a majority of CDU/CSU diminishes even more, and it is certain Merkel's won't cooperate with the AfD.

 

[DiAnna]

Will be interesting to see if the anti-euro AfD manages to win the 5.0% of the votes necessary to enter the parliament. If yes, Merkel will get pressure from anti-Europeans in the next four years and will probably not be able to afford evoking the impression she's easily giving away German money (assuming she's reelected).

A little definition help for a confused Yank, please? LOL! What exactly is the "anti-euro AfD", and are they the "anti-Europeans" to whom you refer? I have heard a few countries have contingents of citizens that don't wish to be part of EU, or don't believe the EU should exist. What kind of pressure would you expect them to exert? I am seriously curious, since Americans get precious little real news from abroad these days.

 

[German guy]

A little definition help for a confused Yank, please? LOL! What exactly is the "anti-euro AfD", and are they the "anti-Europeans" to whom you refer? I have heard a few countries have contingents of citizens that don't wish to be part of EU, or don't believe the EU should exist. What kind of pressure would you expect them to exert? I am seriously curious, since Americans get precious little real news from abroad these days.

An anti-Euro party (AfD) narrowly failed to enter the parliament with 4.7% of the votes (5.0% are required to enter the parliament). You can find more explanations here:

http://www.debatepolitics.com/europe/171777-germany-before-election-anti-euro-party-enter-parliament.html

If they had made it into the parliament, they would have gotten a lot of attention, and although they wouldn't have joined the government, they could have pressured Merkel: "Be too weak on Europe, and you'll lose votes to us next time! Go too far into the center, you'll lose votes to us! Pay too much to Greece at all, and you'll lose votes to us next time!"

 

[washunut]

An anti-Euro party (AfD) narrowly failed to enter the parliament with 4.7% of the votes (5.0% are required to enter the parliament). You can find more explanations here:

http://www.debatepolitics.com/europe/171777-germany-before-election-anti-euro-party-enter-parliament.html

If they had made it into the parliament, they would have gotten a lot of attention, and although they wouldn't have joined the government, they could have pressured Merkel: "Be too weak on Europe, and you'll lose votes to us next time! Go too far into the center, you'll lose votes to us! Pay too much to Greece at all, and you'll lose votes to us next time!"

Does this mean that we can expect a big bailout of southern Europe?

 

[German guy]

Does this mean that we can expect a big bailout of southern Europe?

I'd say we can expect Merkel to continue her policies as before, more or less, which means bailouts yes, but in exchange for bitter reforms in these countries.

 

[washunut]

I'd say we can expect Merkel to continue her policies as before, more or less, which means bailouts yes, but in exchange for bitter reforms in these countries.

OK Thanks

 

[DiAnna]

An anti-Euro party (AfD) narrowly failed to enter the parliament with 4.7% of the votes (5.0% are required to enter the parliament). You can find more explanations here:

http://www.debatepolitics.com/europe/171777-germany-before-election-anti-euro-party-enter-parliament.html

If they had made it into the parliament, they would have gotten a lot of attention, and although they wouldn't have joined the government, they could have pressured Merkel: "Be too weak on Europe, and you'll lose votes to us next time! Go too far into the center, you'll lose votes to us! Pay too much to Greece at all, and you'll lose votes to us next time!"

Thank you! Very informational, and appreciated.