She has done a good job insofar as she hasn’t made any mistakes. But we’ll have to see how she does on the really big reforms after the state elections before we can judge if...

They have collected protest votes, and the votes of people who normally don’t vote.

I don’t think this will bring any trouble for the grand coalition. Beck is also someone who supports the coalition.

In my perspective, the majority of the German population is still not ready to accept a real hard reform course.

It’s a very mixed message from the voters. The majority of the population is still not ready to go through with a harder reform course. On the other hand, they know that things can’t go...

[The SPD] are taking steps away from the Agenda 2010 and inserting symbolic, leftist elements, … If you look at it that way, the Left Party has already succeeded.

The notion that the Parliament has been elected, and that laws passed by a majority are valid, seems to matter a lot more in Germany than in France.

It will be a compromise. The Union will be able to push through fewer reforms than they planned to, or than we need.

Both parties have moved on the major issues at hand, and to an extent that they can turn around and sell the deal to their constituencies. That seems to be the main point here.

This is a political earthquake, not only for the Social Democrats but for the coalition negotiations, too.

We’ll have to wait to see the content of the coalition agreement. It will be an important sign of whether the government is ready to undertake basic reforms or only reforms too small to get...

The party leaders will probably be able to get support of their members at the end of the day. But it’s still a dangerous business.

Experience has shown that state interests can be much stronger than party-political ties,

It’s an important symbol that the easterners have come to power. They have a more pragmatic way of doing things and they are used to big changes in life, and therefore, I think, they are...