Word: fdp
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...called Grand Coalition of the two biggest parties in parliament: the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor and leader of the CDU, hopes to drop her current partners and govern instead with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). But a tight electoral race and the complexity of the German voting system mean that outcome is far from certain...
...Germans refer to the possible coalition combinations not by the parties' names but by their colors. Thus Merkel, whose party color is black, is said to be aiming to replace the current black and red (for the SPD) government with an alliance of black and gold (the FDP's color). But if her party fares badly on Sunday, Sept. 27, a multihued coalition may emerge: a "traffic-light" alliance of SPD, FDP and the Greens, or even a "Jamaica" grouping of CDU, FDP and the Greens, named after the colors of the Caribbean nation's flag. Both smaller parties have...
...garish. The real excitement comes from the unpredictability of the outcome. It's not just that opinion polls show the CDU and FDP tantalizingly close to attaining just under half the votes they'd need to form a government. A few percentage points could change the picture entirely. But Germans don't even know how many politicians will get elected, since the Bundestag is one of the few parliaments in the world where the number of seats can shift with each election. (Read "Germany's Election: Divided They Stand...
...this year's election could be just as exciting, even though the CDU leads the SPD by a much more substantial margin than it did in 2002 - by as many as 11 points, according to the most recent polls. Denied a majority with the FDP, Merkel could opt to retain the Grand Coalition or try to rope in an additional party. (Remember the "Jamaica" scenario?) Building a coalition - an elaborate dance of horse-trading and arm-twisting - could take several weeks. (Read "Small Parties Gain in German State Votes...
...Germany, the Social Democrats are battered by both the hard left - Die Linke - and the soft left, Merkel's Christian Democrats. At least they have a good chance of returning to government as the CDU's junior partner. Merkel might find it too onerous to link up with the FDP, which favors more market and less state. (Read about Merkel in the 2009 TIME...