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Green Party becomes Germany’s second largest party

Times 13th Oct 2018 The Green Party has emerged as Germany’s second largest party for the first time, in a poll released days before a crucial state election in Bavaria. The party hopes to become the dominant force of the centre left, dislodging
the ailing Social Democrats (SPD), who have fallen back to fourth place.

In tomorrow’s election in Bavaria, once a solid bastion of conservatism, the Green Party is forecast to win up to a fifth of the vote and break the stranglehold of the Christian Social Union (CSU), which has held an almost uninterrupted absolute majority in the state since the Fifties.

The resurgent Greens fought an upbeat and social media-savvy campaign fronted by Katharina Schulze, a telegenic 33-year-old nicknamed the Mother of Dragons after a stunt in which she dressed up as a character fro m the
television series Game of Thrones.

Nationwide opinion polls suggest that the traditional centre ground of German politics is disintegrating. Angela
Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their CSU allies have sunk to a historic low of 26 per cent. The SPD, their junior coalition partner, has collapsed to 15 per cent.

The Greens are vying for second place with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as voters become increasingly disenchanted with the grand coalition that has ruled the country for the past five years.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3a6971bc-ce1b-11e8-998e-a6e3c63abd14

October 15, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, politics