ABSTRACT
The prominent paradox for German party competition in 2013 was that, for the smaller parties, attracting votes in order to form a wing coalition should have been the result of centralist policies. Voters could not be sure which large party the FDP would support after the election. Germany can best be characterized as an oligopoly in which the smaller political parties have to continually take into account the electoral strategies of the dominant parties. In the case of the Greens, FDP and Pirate Party (PP), that they wrongly perceived their electoral strengths, neglected vote-seeking considerations, and chose electoral strategies that were neither suitable for attracting votes nor for getting into office. The FDP continued to highlight their strategy of being the party that has focused on liberal market economy concerns, and has positioned itself at the right of the CDU. Finally, this chapter presents the vote-seeking strategies adopted by the various parties in more detail.
