Now that the results of Germany’s Bundestag elections are in and the world congratulates the victory of ‘Mutti’ Angela Merkel’s Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU). And while the pundits pontificate and conduct their post-mortems, Let us take a step back see who actually won the elections. Frau Merkel did quite while. I agree. But let us compare the results of the elections in 2005 with the elections of the weekend.

The CDU did not actually do any better in 2009 (with 27.3% of second votes) than in 2005 (27.8%). No doubt the Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP) are the clear winners. In 2005 they got 9.8% in second votes and last weekend they got 14.6%. They have done better percentage wise in each successive election.

A more rigours comparison can be found elsewhere. But for a pure observer I offer my congratulations to the FDP and look forward to see what the future of the Federal Republic holds. Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit Für das deutsche Vaterland!