German Elections Update:

Just because I find this interesting.

The comments at TPMCafe Yglesias are really informative about the backgrounds of the East German Communists (Linkspartei) and why coalition with them is difficult. When living members of the party have had your friends shot, I guess it’s a big deal.

Also, apparently Germany has its own Upper House that isn’t nearly as powerful as our Senate, but can block legislation, and that causes Schroeder many problems. Stupid Upper Houses.

Also, while the center-right party is always the Christian Democrat/Christian Socialist coalition in national elections, this does not make them one party. The Christian Socialist Union is a culturally far-right party in Bavaria. It’s often synonymous with CDU/CSU, but still, it’s not unthinkable for the Schroeder to declare that the Socialists are the largest party. In fact, doing so and getting a response that the CD/SD coalition is bigger than the SPD, only highlights that government is about coalitions, darnit. And 50.8% of the people voted for the Socialists or a party to their left.

(This reminds me of 2004, when all I could think was that Gore+Nader not only equaled a plurality, they equaled a majority. More than half the country wanted someone that was either Gore or to the left.)

Lastly, Hugo has a good post on this and how other countries may feel about Katrina.