We really have a lot to learn from the German elections. only one party enjoyed a sizeable increase in its votes and representation, and no-one wants to involve it in government.
Instead the two largest parties who both reduced their votes, and deputies want to be the next government.
Democracy.
Well, the thing is, the germans didn't always have democracy. Back in the last century they gave us the nazis, which was a local refinement of the nationalist fascist ideologies that held sway over most of the continent, and some might think influenced the USA as well. & they exported it.
This led to the really big war. (The one the russians won) & thereafter Germany was divided into "sectors" for a while, during which time everyone figured out what to do with "Germany and the Germans".
The solution was simple, 3 of the sectors (british, french and america) were joined together and became the "federal republic" and one other sector became the "democratic peoples' republic". Or "west" and "east" Germany.
The "west" accepted a constitution especially written for them by the Americans along with huge buckets of cash, and a bit of a blind eye turned to what some people had done and where some people had been till at least 1958. By which time it wasn't considered too important anymore.
The "east" accepted a constitution especially written for them by the Russians, along with huge buckets of potatoes and a very stern approach taken to what some people had done and where some people had been. They were sent somewhere else, and we still don't know where or what they did. & the state organisation that did this was called "for short" the STASI or if you prefer the long version "Staatssicherheitsdienstes".
They were very nasty and relied on a network of "grasses" in the wider community to "keep tabs" on everyone. They also developed interesting and quirky uses of electronics, transmitters and strontium sprays.
Then came President Bush the old one.
& the germans knocked down the wall they had built to divide their city of Berlin, and their country from West and East, and had a big party which never ended. There were potatoes and cash for everyone, and many multi-national-corporations were very interested in the commercial applications of those quirky uses the Stasi had thought up for electronics, transmitters and strontium sprays. Modern mobile telecommunications was born.
this is the site of the national german archive on the Stassi
http://www.bstu.de/
its director's Marianne Birthler who was born in Berlin in 1948 has just said that she has documents in her archive to prove that 7 deputies elected to the new assembly for the "left workers party" worked as "inoffizielle mitarbeiter" (unofficial collaborators) with the Stasi .
"The public has a right to know which deputies collaborated, It's a question of trust."
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other press link:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,1577408,00.html
more will be added.