Good day,

• Once in a blue moon doesn’t even begin to describe a coalition between the hard-left Linke party (successors to the east German communists) and the deeply conservative Bavarian CSU. But the two parties are fighting side by side against a planned reform of Germany’s voting system. The aim of the reform is to bring down the size of the Bundestag from 736 legislatures today to a maximum 630. The ‘traffic light’ coalition has agreed on a law that is to be voted on tomorrow. Controversially, it would seriously weaken the principle of direct mandates by abolishing a rule which lets a party into the Bundestag if it wins at least three constituencies. If the law passes, a party would have to win at least five percent of the vote to have any representation in the national parliament. That would seriously imperil the CSU, who dominate Bavarian politics but don’t put up candidates elsewhere. Meanwhile, it would also have meant that Die Linke would have been wiped out at the last electio…