Germany's Small Party Race Is the Bigger Ticket

The upcoming German election's major contest -- the one between Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and Martin Schulz's Social Democrats -- has been marked by an absence of intrigue and suspense. The same doesn't apply to the heated contest among the smaller parties that are vying for third place. Unlike the two main parties, they are in a real head-to-head race whose outcome may determine the shape of the next government.

Monday's debates among the leaders of these smaller parties -- the left-wing Die Linke, the Greens, the Bavarian Christian Social Union, the liberal Free Democratic Party and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) -- showed that the options for a workable ruling coalition after the election are extremely limited. On the surface, this lineup resembled the debates U.S. networks ran among the less popular Republican candidates during last year's presidential primary season -- a spectacle for political junkies featuring colorful politicians without a chance at real power. But in 2017 Germany, the smaller parties are not a sideshow.