The German Greens are likely to be the new ‘kingmakers’ in the 2013 federal elections

Since it was founded in 1948, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) has been in federal government for longer than any other German political party. As Amir Abedi writes, however, the party’s traditional role as ‘kingmaker’ in German elections has been steadily eroded by the emergence of the German Greens and the left-wing Die Linke party. Using recent polling data, he notes that all of the likely coalitions to emerge from this year’s federal elections involve the Greens in some capacity.