Party politics

Election nights are rarely a time when German politicians speak their minds, and Sunday's state parliamentary elections were no exception. Everyone wanted to be called a winner - especially with key national parliamentary elections just four weeks away.

One thing is clear: the Christian Democratic Union didn't benefit from a "chancellor bonus" in the local vote.

Angela Merkel may well enjoy widespread popularity, but her party took quite a few dramatic losses. Merkel's goal of creating a coalition with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) after the September 27 elections remains realistic, thanks to strong gains on the part of the FDP. She can't feel entirely secure, but the tune that the Social Democrats (SPD) have been singing - that Germany doesn't want a CDU -FDP coalition - is still just campaign chatter.

Hollow rejoicing for SPD

For its part, the SPD's election-night rejoicing over "good returns" remains hollow. At best, their results show them stabilized at their lowest level. The SPD still has future prospects for entering a coalition in two additional state governments, Saarland and Thuringia. But on a federal level, that would only work out if it joined a three-way coalition with the Left party and the Greens. The SPD wouldn't carry enough create a partnership only with the Greens on the federal level - and they currently refuse to join a coalition with the Left party in federal politics. This leaves a de-facto possibility of CDU-FDP, or the continuation of the "grand coalition" of CDU and SPD.

The national trend toward five-party parliaments has continued, making new coalition combinations possible. This includes the much-debated coalition of SPD and Left party - a combination that the CDU and FDP have long warned against.

Surprisingly, no single election was particularly exciting; many Germans found it all dull. They see politicians as being too far removed from critical daily issues, putting too much energy into internecine coalition wrangling, and too little into key issues such as the effects of the economic crisis on jobs, state finances and the social system.

Disaffected voters, lower turnout

Many people just threw up their hands and failed to show up at the voting booths. But that doesn't necessarily bode ill for the national elections. Lower turnout in state elections is commonplace, and what's more, many voters are still undecided. That makes it all the harder to predict the final outcome of the national election.

There is one good piece of news for democracy, however: the far-right NPD saw a significant drop in votes in the state of Saxony. Unfortunately, it was the first time the neo-Nazi party was able to re-enter the state parliament, signalling that the danger of having a disastrous "brown" faction in Germany's parliament is not out of the question.

Jochen Vock covers German politics for Deutsche Welle. (jen)

Editor: Nancy Isenson