Here in germany the system is a bit more complicated but there's also candidates that get selected by a majority vote and it used to be that people said "if you

Here in germany the system is a bit more complicated but there's also candidates that get selected by a majority vote and it used to be that people said "if you're giving your vote to the greens, the vote is wasted." That used to be true since nobody wanted to waste his vote - until enough people did so. Now there's three strong parties contesting. Even if the greens/liberals/whatever don't get elected, showing that there is a growing support for their positions sends a message. It's better than not voting or supporting the lesser of two evils.