It’s an eventful autumn in Germany. Besides Oktoberfest, there has been a general election and events commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s demise. The Germans celebrate their national unity today, but do so amid a tenuous economic picture and societal unease.

There are palpable signs of discontent. A record 2.1 million voters decided to forgo casting ballots for the 2009 campaign last month. The Volkspartei or “broad based parties”–namely the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD)–received their lowest voting percentages since the post-WWII period. Germany’s minor or “topical” parties–the laissez-faire Free Democrats, the environmentally focused Greens and the neo-Marxist Die Linke (“the Left Party”)–were the main beneficiaries of this electoral discontent. All three recorded double digit figures, the first time this has occurred for secondary parties in the nation’s legislative history. “We are entering an era of Italian-style politics,” a think tank analyst ruefully commented.