Coming a few weeks after the victory of the French "no" vote to the European Constitution, the German elections constitute a very salutary and stinging reminder for supporters of a liberal Europe. The SPD, like the CDU, have just paid the price for their respective liberal drifts as witnessed by one of the worst results they have scored during the past fifty years. By contrast, it was the strength of the demand for a change of course that enabled the emergence, as the country's fourth political force, of the new "left party" solidly anchored both East and West. This major political innovation in Germany and the hope that it raises among the German left confronts the SPD with its responsibilities: either it decides to continue its liberal policies with the right or it chooses to engage, along with the left, in breaking with them. Food for thought for the whole European left.

Francis Wurtz, Head of GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament