Somehow, electoral success for new, rising parties in a democracy is now a threat to democracy. While relatively poor electoral outcomes for parties who have traditionally dominated – securing only around a third of the vote – is enough to give these parties an unquestioned right to govern.
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In German politics, a strong party taboo was broken when Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party joined with the centrist Free Democrat Party leader in Thuringia, Thomas Kemmerich, to form a government with the support of the right wing Alternative for Germany. The breaking of the taboo might reflect the passing of the generation of Angela Merkel, shaped by the complex social, political and economic legacy of the Nazi past, a divided Germany, post-Soviet national reunification and the emergence of the European Union.
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