At least from the news we receive in the US, it looks like the government is coming together.

It is a funny sort of deal - it appears that more or less the concept is to "pay off" other parties to join into the government.  A combination of positions and special interest funding for pet projects and concepts.

I am sure that it goes on everywhere, I am just not used to it being so obvious.  It gives the impression that more or less Merkel is selling off policy to stay in power.

Seems like a dangerous game to play for the long term, as it increasingly alienates the right end of the party.

It's called compromise. If you want to form a coalition government then all parts of that government will require some of their policy ideas being made reality. Otherwise what is the point of them agreeing to being part of a coalition government if they are unable to actually act as part of the government?

It's nothing new nor sinister. It's what happens in countries with more proportional election systems that result in the requirement of a coalition being formed. Usually leads to a more moderate and centre policy direction. And potentially much more stable.

Or it leads to nutjobs like the DUP having a cudgel on your gummint.

That's more a problem with the Tories and Theresa May, who were both already comfortable doing business with terrorist supporters and human rights abusers, so their eagerness in paying the DUP to prop her up shouldn't be a surprise.

I know almost nothing about German politics, but it appears their coalitions are at least done with the major parties - not ones who had less than 1% of the vote - so have a greater chance of being somewhat representative.

I'm all for proportional elections, but they can be abused and manipulated to give minority parties disproportionate power, as we see in places like Italy and Israel. As for Germany, it may well be that at some point in the near future, a center-right party will form a coalition with the AfD in order to form a government.

But FPTP gives major parties disproportionate power. No perfect system but at least with a proportional systems the power is much more proportional and representative.

But yeah, what BP said. That was a poor decision that isn't even a formal coalition.

What we need is to fix stupid voters and non-voters (mea culpa, for quite a few years).