That Other Party

The major newspapers and media of Germany have been conducting various polls to do some predictions of the fall elections.

The CDU can rest somewhat.....there's zero chance that the SPD can mount a serious challenge.

But in recent days, there's this oddball statistic that pops up in some polls.  No one really wants to take the new political party....the Anti-Euro Party (AfD)....serious.  So they tend to be left off most polls.

Well....Bild (a national newspaper) finally did include AfD, and there's a bit of a shock.  The party came in third with around fifteen percent of the polling data going to them.

Bild still holds an official news position that AfD can't possibly get past the five percent point, and thus, will not be part of the Bundestag after the fall election.

The public?  They aren't necessarily buying into Bild's perception of the party.

The cog that runs the AfD wheel?  Call it growing discontent over the Euro, the neighbors in financial crisis, or just negative feelings against the established parties....but there's feelings that some significant change that needs to occur.  Their biggest problem?  Beyond finance, taxes, the Euro, and some mythical change, there's just not much.

The fifteen percent take on this?  The CDU would have a problem if AfD takes roughly fifteen percent of the national vote.  I would suspect that they really don't want to partner up with AfD, but they'd have few choices left.  You need to present control of fifty percent of the new Bundestag, and the only way to make that is either a partnership with AfD or the SPD.

Finally, the American prospective on this?  Whether Germans like that view or not....the AfD is basically the American Tea Party.  Arguments would arise over this idea.  I'm sure Germans would hate to hear that comment.  But it is moving in that direction.