Merkel running for 4th term

[politicus]

You already have Die Linke.

Lafontaine & Co never managed to turn Die Linke into a Left SocDem party. It has too much bagage and its very existence blocks the advance of a credible leftist alternative.

[politicus]

You already have Die Linke.

Lafontaine & Co never managed to turn Die Linke into a Left SocDem party. It has too much bagage and its very existence blocks the advance of a credible leftist alternative.

Granted, the most recent vote share maps for each party that a quick Google found for me were for 2005, but it looks like the Greens fill that role in West Germany. What stands in the way of a Green/Left merger? Personalities or something more substantial?

Something a lot more substantial. Very different parties, but I better let someone more knowledgeable of German politics answer that in depth.

Still, a quick answer: Greens are middle class, fairly pragmatic and social liberal on a number of areas, Linke is old-SED infested in the East and Autonome/"activist" infested in the West. None of them are Left SDs with appeal to "the common man" (although Linke of course have those in the East).

[politicus]

Is there anyone among the SPD ranks who looks like chancellor material or is the centre-left disease of weak politicos haunting the SPD as well?

Hannelore Kraft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannelore_Kraft

[politicus]

Nah, Greens and The Left are basically the same ideologically. All the differences are cultural.

'

Well, that is contrary to the opinion of basically anyone knowledgeable about German politics.

[politicus]

Pragmatic - with some leftist instincts and working class background, but she has the common touch, and I think that is more important.

[politicus]

You already have Die Linke.

Lafontaine & Co never managed to turn Die Linke into a Left SocDem party. It has too much bagage and its very existence blocks the advance of a credible leftist alternative.

I was speaking of Jeremy Corbyn more specifically.

It remains to be seen if left-wing social democrats can appeal to a broader audience generally, anyway. Throw in the Greens and they're already at 20%. Outside of Greece, where has a party to the left of mainstream social democratic party done better than that? Even Podemos is polling in that range.

Most usually, such parties struggle to get over 10%. Their room for improval is questionable.

Maybe this is more idiosyncratic than you are looking for, but the Icelandic Pirates?

Needless to say, the amount of Greens who would be happy with a coalition with the CDU would seem to indicate a Linke-Green merger is a long way off. Unless the party underwent a Swiss style schism.

Yeah, a bit too sui generis. I'm also tempted to write Iceland off as "too small to count".

If we are talking about the general issue of whether such a party could have success in Europe the size of the country is a rather irrelevant criteria. Provided it has an independent economy, which Iceland has ( ex. San Marino would not count because it is de facto Integrated into a bigger country).

(ftr: I do not consider the Pirates to be left wing SDs - or any other kind of SDs for that matter)

[politicus]

In this thread: Non-Germans enthusiastically lecturing Germans about how their political system works, or at least ought to work.

Why the plural?