The election victory of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and the free-market Free Democrats is good for Germany's economy and business – but how good remains to be seen. The outcome is complex. Paradoxically, Germany appears to have shifted rightwards just when the financial crisis has exposed the pitfalls of policies traditionally associated with the right. In fact, the result is as much about the decline of Germany's two big parties and rise of smaller parties at either end of the spectrum. The CDU and Social Democrats, which once commanded 90 per cent of votes between them, this time took below 57 per cent, both scoring their worst result for nearly six decades. While the Free Democrats' 15 per cent is their best result ever, the Greens achieved the same feat and the populist Left party came close.
安格拉?默克爾(Angela Merkel)領導的基民盟(CDU)和擁護自由市場的自民黨(FDP)在選舉中獲勝，對德國經濟和企業有利。但好處有多大仍需拭目以待。選舉結果錯綜復雜。頗為自相矛盾的是，盡管金融危機暴露出了傳統右傾政策的失誤，德國卻似乎仍在偏向右翼。事實上，選舉結果既體現了德國兩大黨派的衰落，也驗證了較小黨派（不論左、右翼）的崛起。曾經獲得90%選票的基民盟和社民黨(SDP)此次合計得票率不及57%。兩者得票率均為近60年來最差水平。自民黨得票率15%，為歷來最佳；綠黨(Greens)實現了同樣的壯舉，奉行平民主義的左翼黨(Left)也與之接近。