Big gains for Die Linke, a party with its roots in East Germany (from which it has carried over an unsavoury internal minority, although that minority is not in charge), where the political culture is still very left-wing, and where the grammar schools were restored by popular demand as soon as the Wall came down.
Die Linke almost quadrupled its vote, so that it now has councillors in every major city, in the local elections in the old Social Democratic heartland of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the grammar schools were saved by, again, popular demand.
Nowhere near all of these Die Linke voters are Hard Left. People like that already voted for it anyway. They are voting against the abandonment of historic, popular principles by the CDU and the SPD, which are instead chasing after neoliberal economics, neoconservative foreign policy, and European federalism.
All also rejected by the solidly Catholic, heavily dominant CSU in Bavaria.
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Bad news for the consensus parties, certainly. Good news for Die Linke, for the cause of peace and social justice.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue that the model of what was known as "social democracy" in (West) Germany couldn't survive the GDR's demise.
Word is that big business leaders in Germany are holding off job losses until after the general election, in order to secure a "friendly" administration that will stick to business as usual.