The Lesser Of Two (Or More) Evils

It's election day next Sunday here in Germany, and honestly, I have never been this undecided before. If feels like no matter what, I cannot make a right decision. The political party landscape is a lot more divers in Germany as it is in the U.S. We have at least 5 parties in our Bundestag (equivalent of the Senate), and the government usually consists of a coalition of 2 parties.

So here are the choices on Sunday:

The conservative party: majority party right now, party of the current chancellor Angela Merkel. While I personally think that she did an awesome job during the economic crisis, I am really disappointed in her reaction during the NSA spy affair. Won't vote for this party, because I'm in general not on the conservative side.

The social democrats: on the center left, hottest contender for the majority party. Candidate for chancellor somehow sounds like a joke; I predict impossible embarrassments in the future shoudl be become chancelor. Some of the proposed changes would be not necessarily to the advantage of our family, and since I don't like voting for the big parties, I won't vote for them as well.

The liberals: used to be my party of choice, especially since they are the coalition partners of the conservatives and would ensure another term for chancellor Merkel. But since both parties are probably going to vote in favor of a free trade agreement with the U.S. (meaning Monsanto getting unlimited access to our markets; so far they would not get licenes for the E.U.). So that one will probably a NOPE as well.

The green pary: coalition partner of the social democrats. Theoretically a good approach, but oftentimes a little bit off the reality. Also: their comments on pedophila was SO off of things that can be acceptable, so there's a no as well.

The left-wing party: A lot of good approaches. I really like that during the campaign they were the only ones who defined clear goals instead of just blurry slogans. Unfortunately, they lose credibility because the are the ones who can make claims like that because they will never be in the position to be held to them; if anything, they will be the third, and smallest party in a ruling coalition with the social democrats and the green party; so no.


Given the choices I have, I might just go ahead and listen to Lily's suggestion to vote for the Pirate Party. Yes, in Germany we actually have a pirate party, is that cool? I totally think so  ;-)