Portside

They lost 1.4 million votes and ceded "safe" seats in their east German stronghold to Angela Merkel's conservatives, but the radical Left are smiling about an election outcome that may finally upgrade them from pariahs to the political mainstream.

If there's a grand coalition between the CDU and the Social Democrats, current laws mean that Die Linke and the Greens wouldn't be able to challenge the government's legislation

The Left party (Die Linke) received nine percent in the poll conducted by INSA and published by German newspaper Bild on Thursday, just days head of general elections.