Greens on course for federal government

I've just realised, somewhat belatedly, that Germany's Greens have become the second strongest party in the wake of the Fukushima accident and have stayed in second place quite firmly since then.

Today's Forsa poll indicates that in response to the "Sonntagsfrage" (what would you vote if federal elections were held next Sunday?), the votes were distributed as follows:

31% CDU/CSU (conservatives)
26% Green
23% SPD (labour)
9% Linke (left)
4% FDP (liberal)

source, and additional polls from previous weeks

This would give a putative green-red coalition a solid majority, as the FDP (currently Merkel's junior partner) would fail to get into parliament, staying below the 5% threshold.

For someone who first voted in 1983, these figures just look crazy. Having been a member of the Greens from the early 80s to 2001, I never thought I'd live to see this happen.

Mind you, it's only a partially due to voters becoming greener, and a large part due to the party becoming more mainstream and normal since the days that I witnessed.