Anything Goes

Nothing is impossible: Der Spiegel online used this Toyota slogan: Nichts ist unmöglich as a title of an article referring to newly possible color combinations in German politics. Remember the color coding of our political parties?

Nothing is impossible? Instead, the lyrics of an Ella Fitzgerald song come to my mind:

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
Now heaven knows, anything goes.

With the Greens flying high in the sky (like Ol' Blue Eyes with his gal or chick), the other colors become pale or nearly vanish like the yellow-colored Liberals. Following their crushing defeat in the latest State elections, they choose as a first remedy a new party chairman, a doctor by profession, to cure them of anorexia.

At present, all political parties in Germany would like to get a bit of the anti-nuclear bonus the Green Party is profiting from. All in vain; if there were federal elections today, the Christian Democrats (black) would remain the strongest party, but they would be unable to form a government for the Liberals (yellow) would fall below 5% and thus no longer be presented in the Bundestag (parliament). 

And as the Greens will have more votes than the Social Democrats (red), Germany would likely have a green chancellor provided the Reds accept the rôle of a junior coalition partner for the Greens like in the State of Baden-Württemberg.

This may not happen, and with the yellows falling out of parliament, the blacks are looking for a "new" coalition junior partner, and suddenly anything goes. For them, the Greens have become honorable.

However, all this is just a snapshot, for the tide will change once Fukushima doesn't make it to the front page anymore and the Green-Red coalition in Stuttgart is showing symptoms of wear and tear.

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