Will these men change Germany? The Left Party surges

When you say so.

This is nothing representaive for Germany:

we had today early elections for our "Landrat" (the Landrat is the head of the administration of a district/county as well as its representative and leader of its parliament), since the former (CDU/conservative) retied due to health reasons.

We are a strong CDU county. (State lawmakers are two conservatives, two from the Social-Democrats and one Liberal [FDP - candidate for that party today as well].

The actual CDU the fairly unknown leader of the CDU-members in the county parliament, the SPD candidate, a museum director, tries it very time again, the BG-candidate (BG [center-right] = independent citizens) is known for his populistic ideas and Die Linke nominated their leader hhere in the region, a civil servant in the county administration (social worker in the youth department).

What is NOT surprising are the losses of the CDU and SPD, the gains by the others but how Die Linke made it:

In cologne
In cologne where I live the people are fed up with FDP, CDU, and SPD.
I think the Linke will shape the European way of thinking.( I was an active SPD member)
Let us wait and see

Sorry
I am one among the few(550 members) in LINKE.
My attention is
STEUERPOLITIK
RECHTEXTREMISTEN
MINIMUM WAGE
And for the social justice.

In India I was dead against the cast system, corruption .
I was a non-violent communist.
Now I have a platform to uphold my ORIGINAL CULTURE
Germany is not according to your views but different.
Await and observe the developments.

Der frühere Außenminister Joschka Fischer hat sich erstmals über sein Verhältnis zu den Grünen geäußert. Dem Nachrichtenmagazin "Spiegel" sagte er rückblickend: "Die Partei hat sehr viel Kraft gekostet. Sie hat mir zwar einen großartigen politischen Aufstieg ermöglicht. Aber am Ende war ich müde, einfach nur noch müde. Dieser ewige Kampf zwischen Illusion und Realität, diese Diskussionen mit Leuten, die manchmal kaum wissen, worüber sie reden, haben mich erschöpft."

Joschka sagt "schwere Zeit" voraus
Fischer prophezeit seiner Partei eine "schwere Zeit". Er kritisierte die Grünen wegen ihrer jüngsten Afghanistan-Beschlüsse. "Man bezahlt einen hohen Preis, wenn man sich in Richtung Illusionen verabschiedet. Denn man hat danach einen langen Rückweg anzutreten oder kann gar völlig abstürzen."
http://onnachrichten.t-online.de/c/12/54/19/12/12541912.html

I think Joschka is a smart man, but has also over time become somewhat megolomanic. And he seems to be of the school that if people dont agree with him, they must just not understand.

DIE LINKE. Wohin verändert sie die Republik? by the Rosa-Luxembur-Foundation

English version (PDF)

Most certainly (well, you can take it for sure at this time!), Die Linke will be for the first time in a state parliament in a western German state (Lower Saxony): early indications point to 6.6%:





In Hesse, where elections were hold today, too, they have narrowly missed parliamentary seats ("5% hurdle" - election threshold)

And by now (20:00h local time) it seems that Die Linke might have got 5% in Hesse - thus being in the parliament.

Yeah, finally Roland Koch is gone! The voters did send a message what
they think of people like Koch.

Unfortunately, Koch might still be in the race ...

Right on!

Interesting report in spiegel-online: Germany's Social Democrats and their Far Left Migraine

The results from today's election in Hamburg (state):

In Köln we the Linke have some skirmishes( Problems) My party is just one year old and quarelsome.
But I am not disillusssioned.
Heat will subside and 6 percent is rest assured.
Rama