Bundestagswahl (Elections) 2009

Germany went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new government. This meant they would be choosing the next chancellor to lead the country. Though most expected the current center-right Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to prevail over her center-left party rival, Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, many also had hoped the Wahlkampf (campaign) to be invigorated by the fact that Steinmeyer has been Merkel’s foreign minister until Sunday. How exciting! However, this face-off turned out to be the least exciting and least anticipated aspect of the entire campaign. Instead, the political buzz in Germany this week has surrounded which smaller parties would join the next governing coalition with whom. This phenomenon really got me thinking about the differences between the U.S. and German systems. Before you immediately close this window for fear of what highfalutin academic mumbo-jumbo is about to follow, bear with me for three points (or just skip to the last one).

1) I’ve long been a believer the proportional representation voting system enjoyed by many democracies of the world, and by Germany in particular (How their system works). Despite foreign-sounding concepts such as mixed-member districts, overhang seats, and casting two votes, it does a much better job of proportionately reflecting the political persuasions of the population than the American system of “winner take all.” Because of this key difference, I’m super-jealous that the Germans enjoy...

2) ...a multiple-party system. I admit that I’m biased against the American two-party system that utterly fails to represent my political interests, but I also believe there’s some value in having more than the tired old left-right spectrum from which to choose my representatives. Granted, some of the smaller parties fail to make it into the government, but as this very election demonstrated, it was the success of three smaller parties actually determined the flavor of the government.

3) Speaking of smaller parties... the most entertaining aspect of all this? More nuanced parties means diverse political beliefs and thus: fantastic political advertising! Though I think Die Piraten (The Pirate Party) might be my favorite party I encountered, below are some campaign posters that particularly caught my eye.

The Retired Persons Party. Ok, perhaps a little too targeted.

The Greens did well this election, here campaigning against atomic energy. But isn't atomic energy supposed to be clean and green?

"Wealth for everyone." These are the successors of the old East German Socialist Party and they still managed to win almost 12 percent of the vote with this slogan. Maybe I'm mistaken, but seriously guys, didn't we already try this once before?

"Finished with the Crisis Chaos! Forward to True Socialism!" The Germans weren't so convinced.

"Our Crisis Advisors." With pictures of Marx, Lenin, and some other bearded dude. I think the German Communist Party needs to start with some better campaign advisors, much less economic advisors. Didn't pay off.