the rest of the country opted to kick out the socialists from government in recent national elections, replacing them with a libertarian party running on a tax cut platform.
Currently, Germany has a coalition of CDU + SPD which will become a coalition of CDU + FDP.
(Anyway, every party in Germany is a socialdemocratic party in some sense.)
The FDP (free democratic party) had its best showing at a federal election ever, with around 15% of the vote. (So did the socialist party with around 12% or so.)
(Note: I'm an American that's been living in Germany for the last 7.5 years.)
I don't know if that's good or not. Germany uses a strange in-between system, and it also has a threshold, i.e. you need 5% of the votes (or alternatively win three districts) to get into parliament.
If you review that list, you'll note that where the rubber meets the ground (rules of operations) there is a huge body of governing rules that are extra-constitutional and developed over the course of the past couple of hundred years by the two establishment parties.
As an analogy, consider supplying independently developed applications for a platform with a proprietary OS where the OS vendor has a vested interest in keeping independents out (or ineffective).
And even before reaching the forum, the non establishment entities must dance to the tune orchestrated by (you guessed it) the establishment:
http://www.fec.gov/members/members.shtml
Its a chicken and egg problem. We need a Supreme Court that can review and strike down faulty laws enacted by the entrenched interests to revise the system. But to get to the Supreme Court, the candidate needs to be nominated by the establishment President and approved by the establishment Congress.
"the rest of the country opted to kick out the socialists from government in recent national elections, replacing them with a libertarian party running on a tax cut platform"
The rest of the country was not a target of their demand. In fact, it was the rest of the country they want to help with their own money.