NOTHING is more fun for German political junkies than inventing names for exotic potential coalitions. The latest is a "pepper coalition": Social Democrats (reds), Greens and the (orange) Pirate Party. This entered the lexicon when the Pirates took 8.9% of the vote in Berlin's election last month, securing 15 seats in its legislature, their first at state level. Nationally, the polls now suggest, the Pirates could yet displace the Free Democrats, the junior partner in Angela Merkel's coalition, as the fifth party in the Bundestag. If that happened, reds and greens might not be able to govern together without them.
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