It took 25 years for the successors to the party that ran Communist East Germany, Die Linke, to win a state prime minister office in united Germany. Many Germans believe it's still too soon, but the elevation of Bodo Ramelow in Thuringia is probably a better reminder of the country's break with its divided past than the recent festivities commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Starting today, Ramelow heads a "red-red-green" coalition government in the eastern Germany state. It includes Die Linke, the Social Democrats and the environmentalist Greens. Die Linke has won regional offices, but this is its highest achievement. If the Thuringian government works, it might convince the Social Democrats, now part of Germany's governing left-right coalition, that they should not shun alliances with the ex-Communist Party. That could undermine Chancellor Angela Merkel's dominance of German politics. For the moment, the Social Democrats would rather work with her Christian Democrats than with the radical left and the Greens, but if that changed, the center-right chancellor and her allies could find it more difficult to hold on to power.
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