Germany's election math is now completely divorced from how democracies actually function. AfD is the second-largest party by votes but the entire political system treats it as radioactive. Every other party, CDU through Linke, has sworn a cordon sanitaire: no coalition, no negotiation, no legitimacy. So you get these absurd coalitions that require three or four parties just to scrape together a majority. CDU/Greens/SPD/Left working together. It's unstable, it's weak, and it's becoming the only option. This isn't strength, it's institutional sclerosis. You can't just delete a party that millions voted for because you disagree with it. You end up with governance theater instead of actual government. The real story is what happens when the consensus breaks and all the "respectable" parties have to pretend the votes that count are the ones they approved in advance.