German Green Turned Red By Machine

To Matthias Berninger, it probably seemed like a completely innocent thing to do. During a campaign event near the town of Kassel in central Germany, the Green party politician decided to fill out the so-called Wahl-o-Mat, or election-machine.

The test asks people to share their views on 30 topics, such as speed limit on highways, a minimum wage, compulsory military service, raising taxes and gay marriage. Depending on a person's answers, it gages the overall compatibility of personal views and party programs.

Berninger, who became Germany's youngest parliamentarian in 1994 at age 23, picked and clicked -- only to end up with a not-so-perfect result.

Instead of revealing himself as a die-hard Green supporter, Berninger's heart really lies with Germany's new Left Party, which arose from a merger of the successor party to the former East German communist party and disgruntled Social Democrats from western Germany.

"I'll still vote green"

Berninger's runner-up was...the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens' current senior coalition partner, but still not Berninger's own political home turf, which was only ranked third.

But the consumer affairs experts vowed not to let the machine change his mind.

"You can be pretty sure that I'll still vote for the Greens," he told reporters, adding that he's never tried to hide the fact that he disagrees with his own party in certain areas, such as tuition fees at universities (he supports them) or liberalizing drugs.

That might be the case, and both questions appear in the test, but neither issue is one on which the Greens and the Left Party disagree. Maybe Berninger should just give it a second shot.