Sunday, March 27, 2011

German Greens continue to advance

The results of the important Baden-Württemberg election are rocking Germany. In an area that has been Tory (CDU) since the fifties we are due to see their historic first Green President as a Green/SPD coalition rolls into power.

The Greens were the only party (bar the Pirates who hadn't stood before) to increase their vote share. Incredibly they doubled their vote to just under a full quarter of those who voted.

This comes as the Greens have been riding high in the polls for a while - what this spells out for the next general election though it is far too early to tell.

Party Vote % Change Seats Change
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 39 -5.2 60 -9
The Greens 24.2 12.5 36 19
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 23.1 -2.1 35 -3
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 5.3 -5.4 7 -8
Die Linke 2.8 -0.3

Pirate Party 2.1 2.1

The Republicans 1.1 -1.4

All Others 2.4


6 comments:

Mark said...

This was pretty impressive too - the Greens nearly tripled their vote!

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landtagswahl_in_Rheinland-Pfalz_2011

Joe said...

looks like the kind of numbers we could end up with in Brighton and Hove in May, although I get the feeling that Lbour would prefer Tory minority to bending the knee to us in a coalition

Anonymous said...

I will add this blog to my favorites, it is great.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant. Let's hope the sentiment spreads, and that people are finally realising that its now or never.

Luke said...

I agree with Joe - we could be looking at very similar numbers on Brighton and Hove city council in May. The crucial difference is that the SPD have never been in power in that German state before, whereas Labour ran B+H city council very recently. That explains why the SPD are happy to be junior partners in a Green-Red coalition, while Labour might be somewhat less enthusiastic if a similar opportunity arises in Brighton.

Anonymous said...

er... we are talking Winfried Kretschmann here people... the Catholic Church are now in charge in Baden Württemberg.