German parties are looking for a strategy – Greece may provide an answer

Weeks full of political drama. Unexpected twists and turns. Then tragedy. These are not the usual characteristics associated with contemporary politics in Germany. But recent events in the eastern state of Thuringia, followed by the surprise resignation of the party leader of the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the racist terror attack in Hanau, near Frankfurt, describe a cascade of tormenting developments. This torrent suggests that German politics are increasingly unpredictable, dangerously polarized and in dire need of a reset.

First came a highly controversial political maneuver in which the CDU in Thuringia formed a voting coalition in parliament with the Free Democrats (FDP) and the far-right AfD (Alternative fur Deutschland) to elect a state premier from the FDP. Following a public outcry that a political taboo had deliberately been breached by the CDU...