| Summary/Abstract |
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS on September 24 were a sad experience for Germany's political heavyweights, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Each of them suffered the heaviest defeat in its history, CDU mustering just 32.9% and the SPD 20.5% of votes.1 Angela Merkel lost 8% and Martin Schulz 5% of their regular voters. The Christian Democrats hadn't done so badly since 1949, and the Social Democrats got fewer votes than they had during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm in 1913. According to a survey, more than 60% of Germans said that they couldn't understand why they needed the SPD at all because there was no difference between its platform and the postulates of the CDU.
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