The many colours of German coalitions

ASSEMBLING COALITIONSCDUCSUSPDFDPCDUFDPSPD, FDPSPDCDU in Germany was once a simple affair. Power alternated between the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (, with its Bavarian ally, the ) and the Social Democrats (), with the liberal Free Democrats () or Greens in support. Colourful names occasionally emerged for other governing arrangements: “Jamaica” for coalitions uniting the , Greens and —the parties’ colours match the island’s flag—or “traffic light” for the and Greens. For years these exotic amalgams mainly fuelled the fever dreams of political scientists. More recently, political fragmentation and Germany’s federal system, in which 16 states churn through their own governments, have made them flesh.Half the states now have unwieldy three-party coalitions. Some, like the “Kenya” groupings in three east German states, are dysfunctional marriages of convenience. But the traffic lights in Rhineland-Palatinate, in Germany’s south-west, have been “very successful”, beams Daniel Stich, secretary-general of the there. They may well abide after an election on March 14th. Next door in Baden-Württemberg, which also votes that day, many in the ruling Greens want to dump the , their coalition partner.