German Elections & Politics

[Bumaye]

Could Die Linke conceivably lead a coalition in Berlin should they come in first in the next election?

 
  
Or to frame that question differently: Could a singing gay socialist jurist become mayor of Berlin? Now that should answer your question already. Of course he could, it's freaking Berlin.  
  
No but seriously Die Linke in Berlin is among the most pragmatic and moderate among the different state groups of the party and was in the government several times. It's definitely possible that they could lead another R2G like in Thuringia. And furthermore what are the other options if things would stay that way? GroKo+FDP? If the SPD does that they would land behind both Linke and Grüne in the election after that.

[Bumaye]

Shame Linke didn't get in. Red-red-green would've been decent.

 
 
Hell no, even half of Die Linke members I know are happy that they failed. Die Linke in Lower Saxony is like a personal cult around Dietmar Dehm who is the living embodiment of the horseshoe theory. Kick that filth out and Die Linke will stand at 7%+ next time around.

[Bumaye]

The threshold was established to prevent too many parties in general (not only the far-right) entering the Bundestag. After the last democratic Reichstag election, 14 different parties were represented in the parliament.

 
 
Which is and always has been a cheep excuse. Weimar didn't failed because there was no threshold but because a majority of the electorate voted for parties who actively were against Weimar as a whole (NSDAP & KPD).