German progressives dare to dream of leftist ‘red-green-red’ coalition

SPD and the Greens have declined to publicly rule out pact with Die Linke but privately voice scepticism

As Germany heads to the polls this weekend, it is the scenario that haunts conservatives' nightmares and has progressives daring to dream: that after 16 years of conservative-led rule, Europe's most powerful economy could for the next four years have a full-throated leftwing government.

The possibility of a power-sharing deal between the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD), the Greens and the leftwing Die Linke - nicknamed red-green-red" or R2G - has been highlighted aggressively in recent weeks by the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in an attempt to paint a vote for the current frontrunner for chancellor, the pragmatic finance minister, Olaf Scholz, as tantamount to a radical lurch to the left.