German Greens continue to advance

The results of the important Baden-Württemberg election are rocking Germany. In an area that has been Tory (CDU) since the fifties we are due to see their historic first Green President as a Green/SPD coalition rolls into power.

The Greens were the only party (bar the Pirates who hadn't stood before) to increase their vote share. Incredibly they doubled their vote to just under a full quarter of those who voted.

This comes as the Greens have been riding high in the polls for a while - what this spells out for the next general election though it is far too early to tell.

Party	Vote %	Change	Seats	Change
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	39	-5.2	60	-9
The Greens	24.2	12.5	36	19
Social Democratic Party (SPD)	23.1	-2.1	35	-3
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	5.3	-5.4	7	-8
Die Linke	2.8	-0.3
Pirate Party	2.1	2.1
The Republicans	1.1	-1.4
All Others	2.4

Info source

Police attack environmental protesters in Stuttgart

On Thursday police in Stuttgart attacked demonstrators protesting about construction that they claim would cause massive environmental damage in the area. There have been a number of large protests over this in recent weeks, but this is the first to have been so heavily attacked.


Protesters were gassed, beaten and sprayed by water cannons which left, according to Taz, literally hundreds wounded. Britta Haßelmann, a Parliamentary spokesperson for the Greens condemned the attacks warning that the police actions had dangerously escalated the situation.

Dagmar Enkelmann, for the Left Party, said that after the images of so many wounded had come out that we could not continue "with business as usual". The SPD (Labour) spokesperson made a rather strange comment that I'm finding difficult to interpret where he said he felt sorry for the police, although condemned their "Rambo-politics".

Germany is currently being rocked by large scale environmental protests including over proposals to extend the use of nuclear power as well as issues like that of the 'Stuttgart 21' construction.

Pictures from Indymedia

German Greens Still Rising

According to polls the German Greens, who already have the most MPs they've ever had, are seeing an unprecedented rise in the polls seeing them neck and neck for the first time with the SPD, the German version of the Labour Party.

The current ruling Tory/Liberal Coalition (CDU and FDP on the graph) is polling at 34% to the SPD/Green 48%, or 58% if you include the Left Party. So what's to account for the rise which, like in Sweden, does not seem to have effected other parties to the left of the centre?

One explanation is that the new right-wing coalition's decision to extend the life of existing nuclear power stations has hit a nerve in a nation that has had a vibrant anti-nuclear movement for many decades.

Fresh politics

Others point to a fresh way of doing politics - they have the first Turkish (joint) leader of a political party and they have refused to get bogged down as an alternative to the Left Party, having been willing to deal with the parties of the right when it suits them. That's certainly not to my taste, but it's quite possible that this has allowed them to eat into the CDU's vote as well as the SPD's.

Ironically the CDU's backing for nuclear power has put a stop the potential deals between the Greens and the right so they're getting the best of both worlds - looking open minded and willing to work with anyone, whilst the right has cut itself out of the picture.

In other good news the liberal FDP is languishing at 5% as all these right wing liberal parties should be. This is a third of where they were a year ago and rightly so. I mean really what's the point of them when you might as well vote for the CDU or Tories and get honest conservatives?

A movement in the streets

Another theory is that with hundreds of thousands out on the street mobilised for an issue that the Greens claimed as their own years ago that surge of anti-government protest has fortuitously fallen in the lap of the Greens. Certainly Speigel think this might cause as many problems for the Greens as it offers opportunities as the party is no longer simply a party of protest.

Their experience of the SPD in a previous coalition was not entirely happy and many of the their activists in the east of Germany cut their teeth fighting the regime supported by leading figures in the Left Party. Coupled with the Left's own (shock!) internal problems and inability to mobilise properly for the recent protests they are not looking like particularly appetising bedfellows right now.

Some in the Green Party would certainly like to keep their options open about deals with the partiesto their right. But, if those parties are in charge of the nuclear programme that becomes impossible.

Who knows whether this will last or becomes a deeper long-term trend but it is becoming clearer that across Europe the centre simply is not holding, but there are no guarantees that the ground shifts towards the traditional far-right or far-left parties.

Swedish elections

All the headlines on the Swedish elections point to the fact that the far right have made a break through into Parliament. This is clearly news and marks how Sweden is part of the European wide trend to electing more far-right MPs.

We shouldn't get this out of proportion of course. The far right 9Swedish Democrats) increased their vote to 5.7% from 2.9%, which means they broke the 4% barrier and are now entitled to 20 MPs. Seeing as neither the left nor right block will touch them with a barge pole this worrying development does not actually put them any nearer power than they were before. Would that this was the case everywhere in Europe.

This wasn't the only story from the election though. The Greens now have a record 25 MPs having won 7.2% of the vote, which is something I feel contractually obliged to point out, and makes them the third largest party (from being the smallest party represented in parliament).

This was some achievement as they are part of the left block, which is declining in support with both the Social Democrats and Left Party losing ground. Election nerds might like to know that turnout was up at 82.1%, showing that high turnouts don't necessarily mean defeat for the smaller parties.

The Greens' best area was, you may not be surprised to hear, Stockholm with over 12% of the vote with other urban areas doing very well too. By contrast the far-right seems to have got their best results in rural areas, although I confess my knowledge of Swedish geography may not be as sharp as it might be.

The only party to increase their vote apart from the Greens and the far right were the Moderate Party, Sweden's equivalent of the Tories - but even so they are still only Sweden's second biggest party after the Social Democrats.

The electoral maths of it means that the right alliance have 172 MPs, the Red-Green block 157 MPs and the far-right 20 MPs, theoretically meaning they hold the balance of power, although we've yet to see how that pans out as they wont be forming a coalition with anyone.

Other interesting things of note: there is a Feminist Party which was formed in 2005 by a leading member of the Left Party and is seen as the largest of the 'others'. Sadly if you don't get above a certain level of the vote Swedish sites don't seem very keen on publicising your results. They got 2.2% in last year's European elections, but wont have received the same this time.

Social Democratic Party	30.9%	-4.4%	113 MPs	-17
Moderate Party	30.0%	+3.9%	107 MPs	+10
Green Party	7.2%	+2.0%	25 MPs	+6
Liberal People's Party	7.1%	-0.4%	24 MPs	-4
Centre Party	6.6%	-1.3%	22 MPs	-7
Swedish Democrats	5.7%	+2.8%	20 MPs	+20
Christian Democrats	5.6%	-1.0%	19 MPs	-5
The Left Party of Sweden	5.6%	-0.3%	19 MPs	-3
Other	1.4%	-1.3%	-	-

Green Party Launched in Spain

I've often wondered why there was no Green Party in Spain, and by often I mean I once wondered it. Well I need wonder no longer because they've decided to set one up.

Spain has an active environmentalist movement but the government sadly is not always sympathetic, for example they abolished the environment ministry two years ago subsuming it within the department of agriculture.

Alexander Sanchez, head of SEO Birdlife and Juantxo Lopez de Uralde, former head of Spanish Greenpeace (pictured right doing something weird) made the announcement this weekend and ICV, a Catalonian Green Party which receives 9.5% of the regional vote and has Parliamentary seats is backing the initiative towards a national party.

Greens have certainly stood at elections but have previously been part of the United Left which has disappointed many environmentalists by backing subsidies for new coal power stations. It looks like there's a reasonably friendly parting of the ways and with a ready made, if modest, electoral base and well known figureheads they certainly have potential.

El Pais says that the party will be of the left, but not necessarily of the traditional variety. De facto leader Uralde also pointed out that the party would occupy a unique political space as the only party to oppose bullfighting, or with a commitment to renewable power.

Uralde says that years ago ecology was just about seals and whales but now it is a far broader political project. He went on to say "La aventura puede ser loca, pero los aventureros estamos cuerdos", which I'm loosely translating as "It might be a crazy adventure, but we adventurers are level headed."

Coalition wobbles?

Perhaps there's trouble in paradise? A liberal and conservative party starting up a marriage of convenience and yet under the strain of a tough economic climate they've started to bicker and stopped talking to each other over breakfast.

One partner wants a laissez faire partnership where the market is free to screw who it likes, the other wants a more traditional arrangement where frugality and responsibility with the public purse is the order of the day. On the face of it they agree in cuts and budget constraints but the tensions beneath the surface start to break out with a harsh word here and an off message briefing there.

The ink is hardly dry on the German coalition government's agreements and already there have been huffy resignations, bad news at the polls and talk of early elections to sort this mess out once and for all.

The German economy may still be one of the most robust in the EU, but it is no longer in a position to simply bail out other economies or fulfill its traditional duties of Europe's banker. This is causing international tensions as well as internal ones with France's Sarkozy making pointed remarks about Merkel's government.

The left has smelt blood and is pushing the coalition to take the plunge and call a new general election. It's certainly not an option either partner would take willingly as it would be seen as a major defeat, but if the working relationship between the parties and, crucially, within them has broken down to such an extent that they can no longer run a viable government then there may well be no choice.

It couldn't happen here though. The Lib Dems and Tories have found a very comfortable working relationship with each other and have, possibly to their own surprise, found each other more than natural allies in government, particularly when the Lib Dems are such accommodating partners. No early election for us I reckon.

Dutch election: far right gains

The Dutch election yesterday saw an increasing polarisation of society and a dangerous shift that benefits the far right.

Although the right only moved forwards by 3 representatives (now 83 out of 150 in total) this is made up from five parties and there was a shift inside the right vote away from the more moderate Christian democrats, with the most shocking gains being made by Geert Wilders 'Party for Freedom' who went from 9 to 24 seats in one fell swoop making them the third largest party.

This is extremely worrying as the Party for Freedom is unashamedly anti-Muslim and anti-immigration. the fact that the three explicitly Christian parties all lost seats to the other two parties of the right might indicate a more general growing secularism, opposing both Islam and other religions, but this should not obscure the fact that Wilders' party is a clearly racist organisation, however they like to dress up their proposals.

The Labour Party and Socialist Party between them lost thirteen seats (3 and 10 respectively), which mainly appear to have been lost to the liberal Democrats 66 (who went from 3 to 10 seats) and the Green Left (who went from 7 to 10 seats).

I've put together this little chart of the new political make up of the Dutch House of Representatives, which I hope is helpful. Click on it to enlarge.


Quick explanation of chart:

The Party for Freedom is in black and the centre right parties in blue. The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Christian Union and Reformed Political Party are all Christian parties who all lost vote share to the far right and the more secular VVD.

I've put Democrats 66 in yellow and in the middle although I'm aware that politically this is slightly more complex and they could well go in with the blue team ideologically.

The two center left parties are in red and the Green Left and the Party for Animals (!) in green. The fact I've placed the animal people on the far left does not denote that they are a bunch of commies, I just didn't know where else to put them, and next to the Greens seemed sensible.

Can't pay. Wont pay.

I went to the excellent 'Can't Pay. Wont Pay' meeting last night with a constellation of lefty speakers including BA workers. You can read reports from Liam, and Brendan, you can also see Caroline Lucas's speech here and read the text of one of the Greek speakers.

As a solidarity meeting with Greek workers and those resisting cuts across Europe, including in the UK, it was really useful. In particular I found the speaker from Unite when she was talking about the BA dispute enlightening and inspiring - which is what you want from an evening like this really.

What's clear is that while we face our own government's slash and burn approach to public spending here this is part of a global picture where the conditions of the poorest are under threat and jobs and services are in the firing line.

I thought I'd look up a few examples from Europe over the last couple of days, and I'm not even including Greece.

In France they are striking to protect retirement rights, including a protest of a million people.

Italy, they face wage freezes and public sector cuts, all to save the Euro. The unions say this could spark a national strike.

The German government, which is coordinating the Euro bailout packages is looking to ways of regulating the banking sector and are banning short selling, which is good... but of course the bail out packages they are arranging are the ones that come with strings attached to attack workers conditions. At least they are blowing up banks in retaliation.

In Spain it's likely there will be a general strike as the austerity package squeaks through Parliament.

Belgium may be the favourites to win Eurovision but they face higher education cuts, and private sector one day strikes and wildcat actions.

Denmark is seeing protests about aid cuts, and welfare cuts. in Ireland, which is still officially in recession, the spending cuts have begun to bite.

in the Czech Republic, they are trying to piece together some sort of political consensus in order to initiate economic 'reforms'.

There are mass protests in Romania. Albania is in political turmoil. Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reports that the US is ticking us off for not having a stern enough response to the crisis.

Of course in the United Kingdom we're squealing as we get hit with a fraction of the cuts to come.

I think I see which way the wind is blowing right now. I guess we have two choices. We can suck up the job cuts and withdrawal of public services or... we can pose and alternative while throwing a spanner in the works.

French regional elections see center weaken

On Sunday the French regional elections saw the ruling right wing UMP take a beating and the Socialist Party (PS) extend its already extensive reach across French regional government. The elections shine a light on exactly how unpopular Sarkozy’s government has become.

PS - Center left. UMP - Center right. EE - Greens. FN - far right. FDG, NPA, LO - far left. MoD - center.

The right were determined to make this election about national identity and Islam and the vote was conducted in the context of proposed laws to ban the Burka. Whilst playing the race card backfired for Sarkozy the dangerous game that the right were playing stoked the fascist vote and saw the National Front (FN) resurrected, gaining 12%.

The FN’s campaign focused on the ‘danger’ that Islam posed to France and, as Sarkozy has just found out, if you encourage people to be racists they will vote for the down the line racists.

The results had added significance for the FN as long time leader Le Pen is 81 and is expected to step down from the party’s leadership soon. The regional elections were an opportunity for potential leaders to jockey for position and Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, who is already an MEP, has emerged as the likely successor.

The election’s Islamophobic rhetoric spilled over into direct action with dozens of pig masked protesters raiding a restaurant last week for the ‘offense’ of selling halal burgers. Commenting on Sarkozy’s tactics Green leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit pointed to the FN rise and said "Bravo Mr. Sarkozy, here's the result."

However the story was not one sided and the French left, which has not always been strong on these issues, were able to confront these racist ideas with mixed success. The New Anti-Capitalist Party ran a Hijab wearing candidate to national uproar and most parties of the left refused to compromise with the anti-Islam mood.

The Greens ran a very clear anti-racist campaign and saw their vote skyrocket, leaving them as the nation’s third party. It’s clear that whilst French society is seeing a rise in racism, there is a powerful counter trend of anti-racism.

Martine Aubry, leader of the victorious Socialist Party, stressed that “the French sent a clear and strong message. They today expressed their refusal to see a divided France.” That may be overstating the case, but certainly Sarkozy’s poor performance is a real victory for the left.

The rise of Greens was not wholly unexpected though as the Greens first won third place last year at the European elections but their impressive result of 13%, including over 20% in Paris, is a massive leap forward from the last regional elections six years ago in 2004 where the Greens polled just 2%.

When the second round of voting takes place next Sunday this puts the left in a formidable position because the Greens explicitly position themselves as a party of the left and take part in Socialist Party led coalitions. Negotiations have already begun between the PS and the Greens for joint lists in the second round elections which will see unprecedented Green representation. This means that while the left won 20 of the 22 French regions last time they are in position to extend that already impressive hold on regional government.

However, one of the headlines of the election is the record low turnout with over half the electorate refusing to cast their vote. A closer look at the Socialist Party support sees that they have had a successful night because their vote has collapsed less spectacularly than Sarkozy’s vote rather than because of some revival in their fortunes.

The Socialist Party has been riven with splits and rows over the last few years, that saw some leading members leave the party. Likewise Sarkozy’s leadership has been consistently rocked by internal rows and disaffection – including court cases and high profile walk outs. However, unlike the PS, Sarkozy has no potential coalition partners on the right with the FN adamant that they will not lend them support in the second round.

With the center parties losing ground and the good results for the Greens and the FN it’s clear that French society is becoming increasingly polarised, a pattern we’ve seen recently in a number of elections in Europe.

However, the parties of the far left, who stood on a number of unity tickets, did not significantly benefit from the collapse of the center. The left vote was, as usual, split – but this time between left unity coalitions. The New Anti-Capitalist Party (NAP), whose most recognizable figure Olivier Besancenot was the highest polling far left candidate at the last Presidential election, polled a disappointing 2% at their first electoral outing.

Much of the press attention was focused on the fact that one region selected a young female activist who wears the hijab. The party’s leadership were supportive of their candidate but there is no doubt that this was a controversial decision both inside and outside of the party.

The NAP were outshone by the “Face of the Left”, a coalition between disaffected
Socialist Party members, Communists and some smaller parties. They polled a more respectable 6.2%, however both parties will no doubt be disappointed with the results.

What all this means for French politics is clear – that the future is unclear. With racism on the rise and the FN renewal of fortunes the threat of the far right is still very much present. However the right wing government is unloved and faces opposition both at the ballot box and in the streets.

It’s quite possible that this period could see the Socialist Party put their troubles behind them and go on to win the Presidency at the next election, but nothing is certain both because of threats to their right and to their left.

Although those left coalitions to the Socialist Party’s left did not perform very well at this election, their vote did not collapse either and they may still be able to capitalise on the problems of the centre. Certainly the extraordinary rise of the Green vote shows that French voters are willing to look to alternatives and to oppose the growing tide of racism.

Italian protests get colourful

The movement against Berlusconi's anti-democratic ways is still going strong with ongoing demonstrations and protests. I noticed in The Times today that part of that movement has branded itself 'The Purple People'.

Berlusconi, like many right-wing populists before him, has taken it on himself to curtail the right of the courts to investigate his crimes, has little to no regard for internal democracy simply appointing cabinet ministers and candidates as he sees fit and has mounted a continued attack on the legal system every time it acts independently of his will.

The latest episode occurred this weekend when "judges in Milan refused to annul a trial in which Mr Berlusconi is accused of bribing David Mills, his former British tax lawyer and the estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister".

I was interested by 'Il Popolo Viola' partly because there seems to be a bit of a habit of using colours to define political movements in Italy. The 'Tute Bianche' (all in white) were a strong leftist political current not long ago. In fact both groups used the slogan 'Ya Basta' (Enough) and talk admiringly of their own 'spontaneity'.

We don't tend to use colours this explicitly in politics over here. The only examples that spring to mind are the highly successful, cough, Red Wedge and the Green Party of course. hopefully Purple will work for these protesters and they'll help to destabilise Berlusconi's rotten regime.

Berlusconi does not exist

I stumbled across this picture of a rally in Italy yesterday. If you click the link or photo you get a bigger version so you can see him in all his magnificence.




From the picture you can see that the great leader is so popular that some people are actually attending the same rally more than once, simultaneously with themselves. Now *that* is pulling power.

However, as this pic is clearly falsified and having learned my science from the climate deniers I have decided that this means Berlusconi does not really exist. I mean, how can he? One of the photos showing him has been touched up!

Swiss architecture foolishness

Today the Swiss people have decided in a referendum to ban minarets, an architectural feature found on some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, because of their association with Muslims.

A worrying 57.5% people voted against new minarets being built, with opposition particularly concentrated in the French speaking West. What's even more disturbing is the way that the creators of the motion are clearly barking mad.

"The initiators of the measure, the right-wing ”Erkingen Committee,”... claimed minarets were an attempt to spread radical Islam in Switzerland, said the vote would bar any attempt to introduce elements of Sharia law in Switzerland."

What? I mean... what? People actually voted with these morons? There's no movement to introduce Sharia law in Switzerland and what the hell have minarets got to do with anything? Since when did the shape of a building threaten liberal democracy? They can't all be simpletons can they?

The Swiss Green Party is investigating whether they can challenge this result legally. Before the vote they issued the following statement (apologies for the rough and ready translation where I've strived for meaning rather than literal meaning).

NO to the minaret prohibition

Switzerland is a liberal and democratic constitutional state. A country, which retains internal cohesion with its linguistic, cultural and religious variety. The freedom of religion is embodied in the Swiss condition.

The referendum, which seeks to create a general prohibition on the building of minarets, shakes the foundations of our constitution. It is discriminating because it wants to forbid Muslims from using one of their religious symbols. It thereby wants to refuse them a right, which the other religious communities have.

The initiative endangers the constitutional state and the internal cohesion of Switzerland. It polarizes opinion and hinders the factual correction of prejudices and wrongly reduces our enemies to Islam.

The freedom of religion may not be abolished. That would be a dishonor for our country and an abuse of direct democracy. Therefore the Greens call on all voters on 29th November to place a clear, convinced no to a deeply un-Swiss project into the ballot box.

The irrational fear of Islam as a whole is an extremely poor way of preventing Muslims from hating you. Come to that I've taken the Swiss off my Christmas card list myself.

Why the Tories hate Europe

William Hague, shadow foreign secretary by day, Just William look-a-like by night has been shaking his Yorkshire fist at Europe again. He's just about as irate as his little body can bear.

First of all the UK should not have gone for the top foreign policy job because foreign policy is not really important (which is a curious position for a would-be Foreign Secretary, but that's where a 'don't mention the war' position eventually lands you I suppose).

Secondly he's in a tizz because the vital British job Brown should have gone for was that of the finance brief which has gone to some Johnny foreigner of all people. A Frenchman no less - so you can see why Hague is in a state about that.

Not only has the portfolio on "internal market and financial services" gone to someone who is French they aren't even in favour of the free market - despite having been nominated by frighteningly Blairish President Sarkozy. So here we come to it.

Michel Barnier, the successful applicant, has a desire to "tame the excesses of "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism" according to the Guardian. It gets worse for Hague because "The commission is keen to regulate hedge funds and overhaul supervision and regulation of the markets through new boards aimed at minimising risk and controlling the insurance, investment and banking sectors."

Mr Hague responding to the announcement that this red, who actually wants to regulate the financial sector has been given the reins of power, said "We repeatedly warned the government that going for the High Representative post and not a senior economic brief in the commission could have worrying results. Financial services are a vital British economic interest. The European commission's proposals have the potential to do serious harm to our financial services industry."

Some might think that, in the wake of recent events, it would be the responsible thing to do to regulate the financial sector. No. when it comes to a choice between destroying the economy or creating supervisory boards clearly the boards are a fate worse than death. A bit of a blow for anyone who hoped the conservatives might be a bit better at managing the economy than Brown inc.

Interestingly this commie, red in tooth and claw, is the Vice President of the European People's Party the European grouping that the Tories left recently. I guess Euro-Tories just weren't right-wing enough for them.

Three stories from today's Guardian

Today's Guardian is full of really good stuff today.

First we have the German banker who's been taking money out of rich people's accounts and transferring it to the poor.

Get in! I wonder if she's one of these German's I spoke about a while ago who have asked the government to tax them more.

Then we have lying cops getting caught out again.

The police chief in charge of the G20 counter operation explicitly told the Commons that there were no undercover teams on the day. Turns out Commander Bob Broadhurst is a complete liar and there were 25 plain clothes police officers mingling with the crowd that day.

Don't worry Bob, you wont get fired. I mean nothing happened to coppers who made up all that stuff about the camp for climate action. Parliament genuinely doesn't care if you lie to it - it really doesn't.

And lastly we have a possible case of sub-editors revenge. John Crace writes an article on how to deal with bullying and stress at work. There's an interesting choice of first words to the piece which bear little relation to the rest of the article, namely; "Change a word and I'll kill you."

Pardon John? Is this a post-modern meta-deconstruction of an article about bullying at work where you fake bullying the sub-editor, in which case it's very subtle... or more simply is it just the sub taking you at your word and leaving in every damn word. I can't decide.

Belgium rents out Dutch jails

Interesting article in the Guardian Weekly on the news that the Belgian government is hiring out prisons in Holland left empty due to their declining prisoner population. The Dutch government was due to shut eight prisons leaving 1,200 wardens out of work but the soaring crime rate in Belgium has stepped in to their rescue.

The illiberal nature of the Belgian penal system, which hardly uses tools like community service, has seen the prison population expand at record rates. This puts pressure on everyone and the article states that "Prison staff are exasperated and take frequent industrial action, and the inmates riot at any excuse." I suspect 'any excuse' is an exaggeration, but let's leave that one side for the moment.

What's interesting about the situation is that Belgium is going to try to solve their situation by building eleven new jails and renting out one in Holland rather than taking at look at what the Dutch have done to reduce the number of inmates they house. Instead of learning about how they have reduced their crime rate over the long term and, the possibly connected fact, that they use non-custodial options like community service more frequently, the Belgian authorities are determined to get tough - which is why their prisons are at 150% capacity and their crime rate continues to increase.

Whilst I've no massive objection to this as a short term measure (although reintegrating prisoners back into the community might be more difficult if they are housed in a different country) clearly the Belgian authorities should be looking at how to reduce the amount of crime not simply focus on dealing with the increasing number of criminals. Sadly this seems unlikely at this time due to a previous scandal around early prisoner release which seems to have soured the political debate.

Oh to be in Germany

I've always thought the Germans were sensible folk. You wont have ever seen me criticise any German person or organisation such is the high esteem I have for each and every one of them. Possibly.

Anyway I've noticed another excellent example of their general superiority to the Brits. Rich Germans have launched a petition demanding the right-wing government impose higher taxes on them.

These bloated capitalists "say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery. Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years."

They are asking the government to impose this special fat cat tax on the richest 2.2 million Germans because "The path out of the crisis must be paved with massive investment in ecology, education and social justice".

They recognise that this can only be achieved through taxation rather than giving to charity and so their appeal for direct taxation on their wealth, in order to protect the most vulnerable and the environment, is both far sighted and laudable.

Will Richard Branson, the Queen or Lord Sainsbury demand that they be forced to cough up? I've decided not to hold my breath.

Whither Malta?

If, like me, you never miss an edition of Malta Today you'll have been pleased to see coverage of the leadership election of the Maltese Green Party, Alternattiva Demokratika (AD), where they profile one leadership candidate "Michael Briguglio – the 34-year-old former Sliema local councillor, also the drummer and main songwriter of a Rage Against The Machine-style metal band, Norm Rejection".

Sounds like my sort of guy! Although he does think that the party "should not even consider not contesting general elections." Which raised my eyebrows.

When asked why the AD did not do very well at the European elections Briguglio says "The message was too bland. We must be more radical in our policies. In the past, AD has given the impression that it was reluctant to talk about certain issues. In politics, you have to have an opinion.”

Malta Today continues "Briguglio is also active member of radical leftwing organisation Zminijietna – Voice of the Left, which constantly lambasts globalisation and economic liberalism, among other targets."

“Green is left, and left is Green,” he muses with a smile. “I don’t believe in the old-fashioned, 19th century style of Socialism. But the future of the Left is undeniably Green. Either that, or the ‘Third Way’, which doesn’t work for me.

Well, good luck in the election.

For God's sake Germany, what at are you thinking?

Alright I'm annoyed now, the bloody German Greens are mucking about. In Saarland, a German region of over a million people, there have been crucial coalition negotiations taking place between all five Parliamentary parties.

Due to the close nature of the vote the Greens, who got just less than 6% regionally and have just three representatives on the state Parliament, had become the power brokers deciding whether there would be a left-wing SPD / Die Linke / Green coalition or a right-wing CDU / FDP / Green block (pictured) to rule the area. A choice between what was called the red, red, green option or the Jamaican coalition (after the colours of the parties).

Oskar Lafontaine even stood down as national party leader of Die Linke and from national Parliament a few days ago in order to pay more specific attention to the area. This surprise move was greeted by Greens as more of a hindrance than a help and it's clear there is some personal animosity between the Greens and Lafontaine who was a government minister during the SPD/Green national coalition a few year ago. Green regional leader Hubert Ulrich said of the man and his party "I don't trust this man or this party at all".

The Green Party voted today by 117 to 32 to enter the right-wing coalition where they will take the education and environment ministries. I will go on record here and now that this is a really stupid decision which I suspect the party will come to regret at a national level if not a local one. It's not as stupid as the equivalent Irish decision, where they linked themselves to a corrupt and tarnished right-wing government, but it's still short term thinking and, frankly, distasteful.

I understand why they might be hesitant to form the 'red-red-green' coalition as they are suspicious of Die Linke's connections with the old regime in the East, which are not inconsiderable. Add to this the fact that the SPD is a failing organisation that is hemorrhaging support and a left coalition does not look that tasty.

To my mind refusing the one does not mean embracing the other. It's one thing to say you don't want to work with a mash up between New Labour and the apparatchiks of a dead Stalinist state but since when were the Tories and a neo-con version of the Liberals a better alternative?

Haven't they heard of Scotland? Make them work for your support but don't get married to the buggers. A couple of government posts will never make up for the fact that you'll be dancing to their tune, not the other way round.

Greek elections: out with the old

The Greek right have been forced to call a new general election after just two years in power which took place today. They were floundering with an unworkably small ruling group, riots in 2008 and corruption charges just as the recession came in to reap havoc in the Greek economy. They just could not go on.

So the New Democracy Party is out and PASOK (the Labour equivalent) is in. PASOK's victory is more a victory by default as their history of dealing with economic problems is not entirely utopian. The kind of majority PASOK gains all rests with the fledging Green Party, no really, it does.

If the Greens are able to hit the 3% threshold to gain a place in Parliament it may mean PASOK is forced to go into a coalition, although who that would be with is yet to be seen. In the European elections earlier this year the Greek Greens got 3.49% and won their first ever MEP, so the possibility of winning their first MP(s) is eminently possible.

Although it's clear PASOK has won, at the time of initially writing the counting is far from over and for the Greens everything is on a knife edge.

Update figures from here;

	Percent	Votes	Seats	Percent 07	Votes 07	Seats 07
Pa.So.K	43.93 %	2,731,505	160	38.10 %	2,727,279	102
Nea Dimokratia	33.91 %	2,108,572	93	41.84 %	2,994,979	152
K.K.E.	7.40 %	460,119	20	8.15 %	583,750	22
La.O.S	5.55 %	344,883	15	3.80 %	271,809	10
Sy.Riz.A	4.50 %	280,112	12	5.04 %	361,101	14
Oikologoi Prasinoi	2.46 %	152,964		1.05 %	75,502

Sadly, although the Greens more than doubled their vote they didn't quite manage to get their first MPs add to this that the two left parties also reduced their vote and representation.

Europe votes: good news and bad

Yesterday saw the German and Portuguese General Elections, elections which have both good and bad news for us lefty greens. First the bad news. Labour's sister parties have been elbowed out of position in both countries leaving the right with a much stronger hand.

In Portugal the ruling Socialist Party lost their Parliamentary majority going from 45% to 36.6% of the vote. Although still the largest of the parties their support was eroded by both the left and the right - leaving the right stronger over all.

The FT believes that the SP will not try to form a coalition but rather, under the watchful eye of their Conservative President, will try to run a minority government with a program agreed by the two right-wing parties (the PSD and CDS/PP).

As you can see from the figures the PS lost its vote share in almost equal proportion to the right and left, with the hard left coalition Left Bloc (BE) making the largest gains. The Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU), a coalition of the Greens and the Communist Party, also increased their Parliamentary representation, although not in as spectacular fashion.

Party	Votes	%	Change	Seats
Socialist Party (PS)	2,068,665	36.56	-8.4	96
Social Democratic Party (PSD)	1,646,097	29.09	+0.3	78
People's Party (CDS/PP)	592,064	10.46	+3.2	21
Left Bloc (BE)	557,109	9.85	+3.4	16
Democratic Unity Coalition (CDU)	446,174	7.88	+0.3	15

In Germany it seems the Grand Coalition of center left and right parties is at an end. While Merkel's Christian Democrats did not increase their vote share they did increase their seats and certainly are the beneficiaries of the collapse of the Social Democrat vote, a vote that has been distributed among the far right, far left and Greens.

The Social Democrats lost a wapping great third of their seats and aside from the right-liberal Bavarian Party was the only party to lose seats last night. you can see from the numbers that the right neo-liberal Free Democratic Party was by far the biggest winner but the The Left and The Greens also made substantial increases.

	Total seats	+/-
Christian Democratic Union	194	+14
Christian Social Union of Bavaria	45	-1
Social Democratic Party	146	-76
Free Democratic Party	93	+32
The Left	76	+22
The Greens	68	+17

Which makes the German Parliament look like this;

Being an electoral geek it's also worth looking at how those seats were won. In Germany they have a dual system of constituency votes and party lists that use PR to top up. It's actually a very useful way of seeing at a glance how a PR system alters the way that people vote and, I think, the results show how the big parties of government in this country rely on first Past the Post to bolster their own declining vote.

I'll explain using numbers. Here are the results for the top parties (and the Pirate Party) in both list and constituency votes.

	Constituency
	Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
Christian Democratic Union	13,852,743	32	-0.6	173	+67
Christian Social Union of Bavaria	3,190,950	7.4	-0.9	45	+1
Social Democratic Party	12,077,437	27.9	-10.5	64	-81
Free Democratic Party	4,075,115	9.4	+4.7	0	-
The Left	4,790,007	11.1	+3.1	16	+13
The Greens	3,974,803	9.2	+3.8	1	-
German Pirate Party	46,750	0.1	+0.1	0	-
	Party List
	Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
Christian Democratic Union	11,824,794	27.3	-0.5	21	-53
Christian Social Union of Bavaria	2,830,210	6.5	-0.9	0	-2
Social Democratic Party	9,988,843	23	-11.2	82	+5
Free Democratic Party	6,313,023	14.6	+4.8	93	+32
The Left	5,153,884	11.9	+3.2	60	+9
The Greens	4,641,197	10.7	+2.6	67	+17
German Pirate Party	845,904	2	+2	0	-

The three parties of government uniformly got better results in the constituency poll than the list system. Two million people (which is a lot) voted for the CDU in their local first past the post constituency who voted for someone else in the PR lists, possibly the FDU although that's an informed guess.

The reason why I included the Pirate Party is that here you can see a small party with a bit of support who people did vote for when it was PR but who were not remotely tempted when it came to candidates for unwinnable First Past the Post seats. A full on 18 times as many people voted for the Pirates under the Proportional Representation system than for them in the constituency votes. In Germany you might shrug your shoulders and say, well they can get seats through the top up list, here in the UK there's no such mechanism which means that minority parties have their small vote diminished even further simply through the voting system we use.


So you can see from this chart that, basically, a load of people voting for the centre right vote for the more minor right-wing libertarians of the FDP when their vote has more chance of making an impact and a large portion of voters who vote for the SPD in the constituencies where only the big players might win then vote for the Left, the Greens and, ahem, the Pirates when their vote has more chance of influencing the outcome.

Geekery aside the Greens have done very well to get more than four and a half million votes and likewise for the Left to get more than five million votes shows, just like in Portugal, that there are alternatives to the failed Labour-style parties so they better buck up their ideas, but as yet that mileau is not winning votes from the right and without doing that they can't move society to the left, just move the left to the left.

NB I'd like to recommend Tina Becker on Die Linke which I thought was particularly interesting.