The Left Party is celebrating. After gaining more than the five percent of the vote required, it will now be represented in the state parliaments in both Hessen and Lower Saxony. Nobody in the party leadership in Berlin had expected that outcome. The party says that these electoral success have established it as the fifth political force in Germany. In the state parliaments, the Left party members will be concentrating on playing an effective role in the opposition, not least because, as political newcomers there, they have a lot to learn.