Mrs Merkel goes fourth

摘要

BEFORE the result in Germany of the Social Democrats' (SPD) vote on joining a new grand coalition was announced on March 4th, Dietmar Nietan, the party's treasurer, voiced his thanks to some 120 members who had helped count the votes in overnight secrecy. Cheers and applause echoed around the atrium of the spd headquarters in Berlin. Then came the result. Of the 363,000 eligible votes cast by members of the party, over 66% were for joining a new "Groko" government. That produced a stony silence, saying something of the ambivalence with which Germany's oldest party entered its third government with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), their Bavarian sister party, since 2005.