The Junge Union has assigned a mounted honor guard to follow every red-green-red negotiator through Berlin, forming up outside each meeting room at dawn and escorting the delegations from door to door in what the youth wing calls a «permanent public admonition» of any coalition involving the Left party.
The guard, drawn from regional chapters and dressed in dark blue sashes embroidered with the word «Kulturbruch,» now numbers enough riders to line the entire length of the street between the SPD headquarters and the Green party offices. A Junge Union coordinator said the unit would «maintain a respectful distance of four paces and a respectful volume of one brass ensemble» until the exploratory talks collapse or the negotiators publicly renounce the arrangement.
Not content with the escort, the youth wing has reserved the Brandenburg Gate plaza for a nightly ceremony in which the coalition agreement, should one be reached, would be read aloud and then formally declared a rupture of German culture by a rotating cast of local chairmen. Organizers have ordered folding chairs for the entire membership of the Berlin chapter and a public address system audible from the Tiergarten.
«We are not blocking anyone's path,» a Junge Union spokesman said. «We are simply walking beside them, at all hours, in formation, until the voters understand what is being built.» The Greens have reportedly begun scheduling talks at locations the guard cannot reach before sunrise, while the Left party has asked whether the escort is available for its own summer festival.