On the evening of 1 June 1995 an unlikely group gathered for an informal dinner at an Italian restaurant in Bonn, then the seat of the German parliament. On one side of the table at Sassella were delegates of the Green party, on the other side the establishment they had gone into politics to oppose: suited and gelled young members of the Christian Democratic Union, the party led by the staunchly pro-nuclear Helmut Kohl.

In German political circles, the informal gathering at Sassella became synonymous with supping with the devil: one Green participant likened the brick-walled basement where the party’s anti-nuclear activists, LGBT campaigners and former East German pacifists debated the common ground between conservatism and conservationism to an “enchanted cellar”. But 22 years later these meetings – known as the “pizza connection” despite the Lombardian chefs at the restaurant serving only pasta – could provide the template for a new era in German politics.

All three of Angela Merkel’s terms in power since 2005 have been coalition governments: two “grand coalitions” with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and one with the pro-business FDP. The SPD is unenthusiastic about continuing as Merkel’s junior partner for another term: many of its members believe that only four years in opposition can rejuvenate the German centre-left’s appeal.(theguardian)…[+]