There were times when it would have been fair to say that Germany effectivly was a two-party system, like the US for example. These times are over. Additionally, Germans evade parties and cancel memberships in huge numbers. sinc ethe late 70s and early 80s, the number of all party memberships in total has halved. The trend is accelerating. I would say especially the young ones are totally fed up.
The first article is about the current party landscape over here, the deep and lasting fall of the Socialdemocrats, and the difficulties of future government forming. We already got a taste of the latter: the great coalition beeing deadlocked in a complete stalemate, which made a commentator remarking during the Obama visit that the senator was visiting a country without leadership. And the little governing and ruling that gets created by the government, is mediocre, and off reality all too often. What is worrying is that the ultra-left
Die Linke, home of all-out-communists, defenders of GDR-Stasi-tryanny and old SED minds, is absorbing the better part of those functionaries leaving the SPD in high numbers.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...568758,00.html
the second article is about the boredom projected by German politicians, their lack of vision and emitting a motivational spirit, and the huge contrast to Obama. Probably Germans' yearning for such charcteristics is what made Obama so popular over here. We do not have a single person that even comes close to Obama, regarding inspirational abilities. The remarks on the differences in education in Germany and the US, influencing personalities in different ways, I found interesting.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...568876,00.html