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When they say "Germany's third largest party" it's important to know that they only hold about 11% of the seats of the German Parliament (Bundestag) right now a
by bartman 13y ago
When they say "Germany's third largest party" it's important to know that they only hold about 11% of the seats of the German Parliament (Bundestag) right now and are unlikely to affect matters in this case.
- v0lta 13y agoThat's definitly right, but the demand of the greens is all over the media here. I don't think, that Snowden will really get safe haven in Europe, but it's nice to see that a lot of Germans would approve it. The outrage reaches the mainstream.
- mtrimpe 13y agoFor context, the first and second party got 34% and 23% of votes respectively. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_2009
- sveme 13y agoTrue, but due to proportional representation, smaller parties play a much larger role in German politics than, say, the UK or the US. Just a shift of about three percent from the current coalition of CDU and FDP to the SPD and Greens in the upcoming election would end Merkel's reign. And the NSA story might be just the event that moves those three percent from the current coalition to the opposition.
- rwissmann 13y agoYes, if anything the Greens as the third largest party play a much bigger role in German politics than someone from an American or Commonwealth background would intuitively expect.
- mahrz 13y agoMost probably the minister of foreign affairs would be coming from the green party in such a case. Though that might change their rethoric a bit.