German Federal Election Options

[MARS]

So, as the German users may know, we have a major election coming up this Sunday, probably the most trend-setting election of the last few years. Will we see a continuation of the grand coalition or is this one going to be a victory for Schwarz-Gelb? Or will we actually see an eco/left wing coalition between Greens, SPD and the socialists? What do YOU think?

For international readers who may also be interested in the outcome of this election,
here's a little summary of the major German parties and how our system works.

Essentially, every German citizen over the age of 18 will be able to vote twice: One vote for the district candidate, one vote for the party. After that, the seats in the parliament (the Bundestag) will be distributed among the various parties according to their percentages and direct mandates. The strongest faction will have the duty of forming a government. Traditionally, Germany has been governed by coalitions consisting of at least two parties.

These are the most important parties:

The CDU (Christ-Demokratische Union = Christian Democratic Union), a conservative party. Their chancellor candidate is our current chancellor Angela Merkel
The SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland = Social-Democratic Party of Germany), with their chancellor candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier
The FDP (Freie Demokratische Partei = Free Democratic Party), a middle-class liberal party, with their leader Guido Westerwelle
The Greens, a pacifist, environmental party, with their leaders Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir
The Left, a socialist/communist party, with their leaders Gregor Gysi and Oskar Lafontaine

These are the most important parties. There's also a bunch of right-wing/neo-nazi parties but their actual influence is
minimal. 2009 also saw the creation of the Piraten-Partei (pirate party) which is mainly a net-neutrality/net-liberalism party

These are the most common types of coalitions:

Schwarz-Gelb: A coalition between the CDU (party colour is black = schwarz) and the FDP (party colour yellow = gelb)
Große Koalition: A "grand coalition" between CDU and SPD
Rot-Grün: A coalition between SPD (party colour red = rot) and the Greens (Grüne)

New coalitions which haven't been tried before but which are always considered an option:

Jamaica-Koalition: CDU, FDP and Greens
Rot-Rot-Grün: SPD, Greens and Left
Ampel-Koalition: A "traffic light" coalition between SPD, FDP and Greens