Brian Huck on the German Elections

Old college bud Brian Huck now lives in Germany where he is active in the Green party.
I asked him recently about his take on the German elections. Neither of the major parties received a majority in the recent elections. To achieve a majority means brokering a coalition either between the two major parties or with some of the smaller parties -- the Greens for example.
Here is what Brian had to say:

I am assuming the result of the elections will be a Grand Coalition of Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union and the Social Democratic Party. I think the mentality of both mainstream parties is most similar to each other, if they can get past the personal ego trips of their leaders and decide who should be chancellor.
The laissez-faire liberal Free Democratic Party with their turbo-capitalist platform has said that they refuse to join a red-green government with us and with the SPD, and the idea of the Greens supporting a government dominated by the Union and FDP is a bit far-fetched. This would depend on what the agenda of such a government was -- one or the other side would have to do something very different from what they promised in their electoral campaign.
If they were to offer to not raise the sales tax and end the military draft (something the FDP would approve of, as would the Greens, but not the CDU) and if they were to pledge to continue to end nuclear power and open marriage (or at least give tax breaks) for gay and lesbian couples, we might be able to find some common ground. But I don't think they are really that desperate, and they will more quickly find common ground with the SPD (which supports the military draft and has some fairly conservative elements in it, much like the Democratic party in the US that also spans a broad spectrum).
While there is a leftist majority of SPD, Greens, and the former Communist left, this is also not a likely option for forming a government, since Schröder had wanted to pursue more market-oriented "reforms" (or cutbacks) than parts of his (and parts of our) party were willing to support, and the threat of some SPD parliamentary members to jump ship and join the Leftist party (which has now been carried out) was the reason he called new elections in the first place. If that's where Schröder wants to go, he will find the most support for that within the Union parties. Then the FDP will criticize that the Grand Coalition is not going far enough and not fast enough, while the Left and the Greens will oppose the changes more wholeheartedly (with the Left more focused on economic and welfare issues, while we focus more on issues like the environment and civil rights).
I think the election result is ok -- it fairly accurately reflects public opinion, showing that the conservatives don't have a majority, while the current government doesn't have a majority, either. It is the third-best election result for the Green party ever (the second-best was in 1987, before the East was allowed to vote, and we don't do very well in the East), so most Greens were celebrating Sunday night, despite the slight drop in support of half a percentage point, and our worst fears (a return to government by the Union and FDP) were not realized.
Under a Grand Coalition, we will certainly increase our support, since many people who voted SPD this time will be very disappointed by what the SPD does when in league with CDU and CSU.