Super Sunday Was Not Black Sunday
In spite of the wide-spread, largely foreign, media reaction to the three state elections, the sky did not fall on March 13. Chancellor Merkel’s unprecedented decision to welcome over one …
Electoral Law Blues
With the next scheduled federal election about 14 months away, Germany has a problem. On July 25, 2012 the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that most, if not all, of the electoral law passed in late 2011 is unconstitutional. In fact it is so unconstitutional that the Court refused to allow any “temporary,” stop-gap version of the old law for 2013. What happens if the Merkel government falls before then (unlikely, but always a possibility in a parliamentary system)? No one knows.