On the afternoon of March 21st, Dr. Klaus Funken, former director of Shanghai Office of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and senior member of German Federal Parliament, revisited SIES and discussed over the approaching German general election in this September, with SIES's president Xu Mingqi, honorary presidents Wu Yikang and Dai Bingran, Prof. Zhang Zuqian, Prof. Wang Zhiqiang, Prof. Cui Hongwei, Dr. Zhu Miaomiao, Dr. Cao Ziheng, and Ms. Ye Yumin. Dr. Funken predicted the possible outcome of this coming general election through an analysis over the campaign principles of political parties and the supporting rates revealed by opinion polls, with a reference from historic records. He argued that the general election of this year might become a most boring election in German history that is not going to be focused on any specific issue. He estimated that a black-green coalition might be the outcome of this election and anticipated that various NGOs would become inactivated and bring much trouble to China if the Green Party comes into office. However, he further elaborated that NOGs would bring much more trouble to the Green Party than it would bring to China. (Details can be found in the related special report.)
