Forming a government: when second comes first – Politics

Apart from the early phase of the Federal Republic, when the party landscape was not yet sorted, the formation of a government after elections was a manageable thing for a long time: There were three parties, the CDU/CSU and SPD as the large mainstream parties and the much smaller FDP. And thus only three possible constellations: Either one of the mainstream parties wins the absolute majority and governs alone. Or the FDP helps one of the two major parties to a majority. The third possibility, which was first practiced at the federal level between 1966 and 1969, was a grand coalition between the Union and the SPD. Because this grand coalition was very large at the time and the opposition was very small, it is still called the grand coalition today, with a capital “G”.