Thread by @jonworth

A nerdy thread about yesterday's Thüringen election in Germany, and terminology about coalitions - translated into English for an international audience

In short: Germany's going to be breaking some new ground here after this election in terms of coalitions!

#ltwth19

First of all the party colours (traditionally)

CDU (Christian Democrats) ⚫️
SPD (Social Democrats) 🔴
FDP (Liberals) 🌕
Greens 💚
Linke (Left) 🍎
AfD (Right wing) 🔵

(I hope all those emojis work!)

You can put these parties together in coalitions in all sorts of ways...

The ones done in the past:

CDU ⚫️
SPD 🔴

Grand Coalition (Große Coalition) - because these are the two traditional large parties

CDU ⚫️
FDP 🌕

Black-Yellow (Schwarz-Gelb) - simple reference to the party colours, has happened numerous times even at federal level

SPD 🔴
FDP 🌕

Red-Yellow (Rot-Gelb) - hasn't happened in some years due to the weakness of both of these parties, but theoretically still possible

SPD 🔴
Greens 💚

Red-Green (Rot-Grün). Ah those halcyon days of Schröder and Fischer.

SPD 🔴
Linke 🍎

Red-red (Rot-Rot). This one has worked in the state of Brandenburg.

CDU ⚫️
Greens 💚

Black-Green (Schwarz-Grün), or in Baden-Württemberg Green-Black (Grün-Schwarz)

But as the party landscape fractures... you need 3 party coalitions.

And 3 party coalitions need more complex names!

CDU ⚫️
FDP 🌕
Greens 💚

Jamaica (Jamaika) - because of the colours of the Jamaica flag 🇯🇲 - currently working in Schleswig-Holstein

SPD 🔴
FDP 🌕
Greens 💚

Traffic light (Ampel) - well, it's obvious! 🚦 Worked in Brandenburg and Bremen in the 1990s

CDU ⚫️
SPD 🔴
Greens 💚

Kenya - because of the colours of the Kenya flag 🇰🇪 - has worked in Sachsen Anhalt

SPD 🔴
Greens 💚
Linke (Left) 🍎

Red-Red-Green (Rot-Rot-Grün) - a lack of suitable flags means there's no shorthand en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_f… - this is often shortened to R2G in German

And then finally, we come to Thüringen.

Where none of those coalitions work! 🤯

Result:

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1188629140985057281

There are only 2 viable coalitions!

CDU (Christian Democrats) ⚫️
Linke (Left) 🍎

OR

SPD (Social Democrats) 🔴
FDP (Liberals) 🌕
Greens 💚
Linke (Left) 🍎

So what do we call these?

CDU ⚫️
Linke 🍎

The only black red national flag is Albania 🇦🇱

But surely more amusing would be the anarcho-syndicalist flag (shown) - die Anarchosyndicalistischekoalition?

And then
SPD 🔴
FDP 🌕
Greens 💚
Linke 🍎

Here there is an option, just about: the flag of Transnistria! Such a coalition would be about as viable as Transnistria too 😜 Die Transnistrienkoalition in German!

An alternative would be R2G2 (Rot-Rot-Grün-Gelb)

Anyway I hope that's a little distraction from the 💩 result with the big gains for the AfD!

Thankfully I am not yet looking for coalitions with blue (or brown) in the flags.

/ends