Actually two words, and they're celebrating 100 days in office today: "Rot-Rot" (red-red) refers to Berlin's governing coalition, made up of two parties who both use red as their identifying colour. That's the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Germany's main social democratic / left-of-centre party), and the Linkspartei (Party of the Left, which is an uneasy alliance between the former PDS - the successor to East Germany's communist party - and left-wing elements of the SPD who were unsatisfied with their party's increasingly centrist leanings in recent years).Coalitions in Germany are often described using this; common combinations include "Rot-Grün" (for when the SPD is in bed with the Greens, as was the case under Chancellor Schröder), or "Schwarz-Gelb" (CDU/CSU and the FDP). When the two main parties, SPD and CDU/CSU, get together however, the resulting coalition is usually and boringly called a "große Koalition" (grand coalition). And on the rare occasions SPD (red), FDP (yellow) and the Greens get together (it has happened), that results in an "Ampelkoalition" (traffic light coalition).

Posted at 3:28 PM in