Concern about Germany's involvement in Afghanistan have apparently fueled a surge of support for the German Left Party (Die LINKE):
Auftrag des Fernsehsenders RTL und des Magazins «Stern» gewinnt die
Partei im Vergleich zur Vorwoche 4 Punkte hinzu und liegt nun bei 14
Prozent. Es ist für die Linke, die einen sofortigen Abzug der deutschen
Truppen aus Afghanistan fordert, der beste Forsa-Wert in diesem Jahr.
Union und FDP erreichen mit zusammen 49 Prozent den schlechtesten Wert
im «stern-RTL-Wahltrend» seit der zweiten Januarwoche. (The weekly Forsa-poll results commissioned by the TV network RTL and Stern Magazing published on Wednesday show that the party gained 4 points in the past week and now stands at 14%. For the Left Pary, which has called for an immediate withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan, these arethe best Forsa result this year. The combined FDP/CDU polled at only 49%, the lowest numbers since early January.)
But it is not only the Left Party's winning policy position that is attracting voter support. The party leader Oskar Lafontaine is the only leading politician in the German political landscape that could be described as charismatic. In this he breaks the mold in Germany, as Madeline Chambers points out in her blog:
Germany’s relatively short tradition of parliamentary democracy,
compared to that of Britain, France and the United States, has — some
commentators argue — nurtured a greater deference to authority than in
Britain.
Germany adopted a political system after
World War Two carefully designed to avoid the weaknesses of the Weimar
Republic — a fragmented system that had enabled Hitler’s rise to power.
Today’s system makes for stable but moderate coalition governments
which cannot implement radical reforms in the tradition of, say
Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, say analysts.
A series of checks and balances and the distribution of power to the 16 federal states limit politicians in what they can do.
change and predictable politicians to charismatic leaders with radical
ideas, say political scientists, who argue the many merits of the
German structure.
But are the benefits of the German system a recipe for a turgid election campaign?
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Actually there is a 2nd charismatic politician….also of The Left…Gregor Gysi.
The mainstream parties have done an excellent job containing The Left given that the state of the economy and Afghanistan. The association with communism bogs The Left down.
Well, we’ll see next Sunday how “contained” The Left party is.