"The FDP has had the great good luck that they aren't currently part of the federal government and they haven't been associated with the crisis," Dietmar Herz, a professor of political science at Erfurt University, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Partially as a result, the party has been able to develop an image of economic expertise."
It couldn’t be clearer: No new taxes. Germany has decisively rejected the tired nostrums of the Social Democratic Party, which campaigned on raising taxes on the wealthy and was the junior partner of the Christian Democrats in a grand coalition during the past four years. The Social Democrats turned in their worst performance in the history of the Federal Republic, winning a mere 23 percent, while the Free Democratic Party (FDP) polled a record 14.6 percent. The Christian Democrats crawled across the finish line with 33.9 percent.
The 47-year old from Bonn will become Germany's first openly homosexual vice-chancellor and could win more than the normal three cabinet positions traditionally reserved for the junior partner in a coalition government.
The FDP leader is best known at home for his espousal of Thatcherite economic reforms. But it is his position on Afghanistan that will make him the welcome face of Germany's foreign policy among the country's allies.
“To the point where they’ve consigned one of the political cornerstones of modern Germany, the Social Democrats, a party founded in 1869, to the trash can of history, or close enough. The S.P.D. collapse to 23 percent of the vote, not the strong showing of the F.D.P., was the seismic shift of the election.” ROGER COHEN NY times.
It is to be seen now, how it effects the other European nations in policy change, if there is some indication from the German results, change in Europe will mark global depression for socialism.
Is it not time for Indian liberals and free market sympathizers to rethink their strategies for a liberal political alternative?
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