Well, we voted here in Germany on Sunday and the results are in. I'm slightly disappointed, personally.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/bundestagswahl-2013-wahlergebnis-grafik-bundestag-wahlkreis-a-923496.htmlThe Christian Democrats (aka the Union) had huge gains and seem to have stopped short of an absolute majority. They didn't use much of a manifesto and just rode on the coattails of Merkel's personal popularity. Merkel has a noncommittal style, avoiding to take a position and being as nonoffensive as possible. The CDU's result is not necessarily indicative for the popularity of their platform. (it should be noted that on social issues, the CDU moved somewhat to the left in the last decade.)
The FDP (Liberal/ you Americans figure it out yourself how you want to call it) for the first time since WW2 is not represented in the Bundestag, having lost 10% off their record 14% from 2009 and dropped below the 5% threshold. The same happened in the Bavarian Landtag last week, and the party is now fighting for their bare survival.
The SPD(Social Democratic) improved slightly from their abysmal result in 2009, but still far below the Union. The candidate Steinbrück mostly blundered through and in my opinion was never a credible threat to Merkel. No winners.
The Greens had high hopes, but took a nosedive in the last month before the election. In the summer of 2011, they rode a high wave of support on the issue of nuclear energy and a train station and were eye-to-eye with the SPD. While these were freak circumstances, they still failed to communicate their issues and maintain the about 16% they still had earlier this year. In the end they also got hit by bullshit scandals about a Veggie Day and pedophilia.
Die Linke(Socialist) had a solid result, but are somewhat of a pariah on the federal level. No one wants to form a coalition with them.
I don't care for the FDP's free-market fetishism, and in that aspect am glad to see them gone. The only figure I was able to respect was Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who reliably opposed and curtailed the CDU's worst excesses in terms of civil liberties and surveillance. When the rest of the government chose to address the discovery that a foreign intelligence service is listening into significant portions of our communications with nothing but silence and denial, she at least tried to give this scandal the attention it deserves.
tl;dr: I miss the FDP's position on civil liberties, but good riddance to the free-market bullshit.
The last countings aren't in yet, but it seems that contrary to the very first numbers, the Union didn't manage an absolute majority, which I'm glad about. A Union/FDP coalition was bad enough, but they compensated each other's worst aspects. A solo government by CDU/CSU would be the horror. Count Merkula will have to find another willing
victimcoalition partner. She has formed coalitions with two partners in her two periods, and each time it ended with the partner having huge losses while Merkel continues to shine.
The SPD did the Grand Coalition biz from 2005-2009, and it was an overall bad experience. Angela Merkel was the chancellor, and thus the face that got associated with it and received the honors. It's a question of 'stupid enough to fall for it a second time' or 'using their only avenue into a position of power'.
In 2010, there was a lot of flirting between the CDU and Greens (and I think even a shortlived state-level coalition). But despite the CDU's newfound appreciation for ecological topics and the Green's new bourgeois wing, there's still a lot of difference between them.
In theory, SPD, Greens, and Linke could also form a left-wing coalition government, but nobody really likes the Linke, especially the SPD. A lot of Linke members are former SPD personnel, and there's a lot of bad blood.
Of further note:
The AfD (conservative eurosceptics) did a respectable result for their first showing, even if they failed to make the 5% threshold and take any seats. Still, they matced the FDP.
The Pirates pretty much failed. After high hopes and seats some state elections, they descended into unmoderated internal flamewars (which according to their transparency policy was broadcasted to the bewildered public), burned through spokespersons, and failed to make any constructive contributions. 2.2%
