http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/06/world/europe/germanys-left-party-takes-its-first-governors-seat.html 2014-12-05 23:32:18 Germany’s Left Party Takes Its First Governor’s Seat Bodo Ramelow of the Left Party, which is made up of ex-Communists and former Social Democrats, was installed as governor of the state of Thuringia in the east. === BERLIN — A quarter-century after the The politician, Bodo Ramelow, 58, will serve with a one-vote majority for his coalition, which includes the Greens and the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats insist that Mr. Ramelow’s election will have no consequences on the federal level, and that the anti-NATO Left Party remains unsuited for national office. Right after winning election by the state legislature, Mr. Ramelow, who was born in West Germany but moved east shortly after the wall fell in 1989, reached out to victims of the Communist regime, apologizing for any suffering they had endured.