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The Commies Are Coming Back

Well, not quite. But they have been making strides. Their instrument is the successor to the Communist Party of the German Democratic Republic, now expired for fully 18 years. It is called the Left Party and, as the New York Times reports today, it is comprised of "former Communists, disillusioned Social Democrats and western radicals." Carter Dougherty explains that the Left Party "is well represented in the east and has parliamentary seats in the city-state of Bremen, it had never sat on one of the large western states' parliaments." Last month it won legislative representation in Hesse and Lower Saxony.

And on Sunday the Left won, also for the first time, seats in Hamburg's legislature. The Social Democrats are trying to ward off coalition-building with the Party or what would be seen as damaging its own chances for power. The SD is now in a fragile national coalition with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

In Cyprus, according to this morning's FT story by Kerin Hope, the head of the Greek Cypriote Communist Party, Demetris Christofias, won a run-off election for president of Greek Cyprus. This means that the E.U. now has a member-state with a Communist executive.

Solidarity forever. Or whatever.