Tag Archives: Bavaria

Elections in Bavaria: Huh.

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Bavaria also had elections this weekend. (I posted about the campaign last week.)

Surprise: the Christian Social Union, which has ruled Bavaria without a break since forever, lost big. For the first time since 1962, they won’t have enough seats in Parliament to rule alone; they’ll have to take on a partner, most likely the FDP.

The big winners were the small parties — the FDP, Free Voters, Left/Linke, and Greens. Die Linke dididn’t quite reach the 5% threshold for getting seats, but they put on an impressive show anyway, jumping from nothing to 4.3%… not bad for a bunch of ex-commies plus Oskar Lafontaine, running in a rich, conservative Catholic state.

So what does it mean? Continue reading →

Blonde on blonde: State elections in Bavaria

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So we have state elections here in Bavaria this week.

Yeah, I know. Bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this.

There are political signs here and there around our small town, but not as many as you’d expect. A surprisingly high number are for the nationalist, anti-immigration Republican Party. I say “surprisingly” because the Republicans only got between 2% and 3% of the vote in the last election. On the other hand, that’s compared to less than 1% nationwide, so I guess they’re focussing their efforts in a state where they have some small chance.

I suppose I should talk about how the Landtag is dominated by the CSU, and has been forever, and about the internal power struggles there, and what it’s like living in a de facto one party state. But, eh, don’t feel like it. So instead I’m going to talk about blonde children in campaign ads. Continue reading →