Talk:Traffic light coalition

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[edit] Origin and usage of the term

Anyone have any idea how long the term Ampelkoalition has been in use in Germany? de:Ampelkoalition has no info on this. Was it definitely first used in Germany about German politics or did it originate elsewhere? French seems to have a form coalition feu(x) tricolore and Dutch has stoplicht-coalitie, but these both seem to be neologisms coined in response to discussion of the recent German elections. Traffic light coalition seems to have been current for a while in the UK - I have a number of googled references going back to at least 2003 - but seems to have arrived initially as a translation of Ampelkoalition and only later spread to analagous British coalitions. Valiantis 19:10, 23 September 2005 (UTC)