Porcine Politics

Lying next to Joschka and Guido, Gerhard and Angela cuddled up to each other on Tuesday and took a big gulp of delicious milk. It's a scene that's highly unlikely to take place in Berlin, but it's a normal occurrence in a barn in northern Germany.

Along with four other piglets named after leading German politicians, the quartet has been enjoying a peaceful country life while cameras observe their every move and make it visible to anyone with an Internet connection.

But that's not all: The people who take care of them have also set up an online survey that allows visitors to vote for their favorite. And just like in real life, where Gerhard (Schröder) would outrun Angie (Merkel) in a direct election (as opposed to votes for a party), the chancellor's porcine stand-in is also topping the piglet ranking.

So far, Gerhard has received 28 percent of the vote, with Angie in second place at 17 percent. Guido, who represents the leader of Germany's free-market liberal Free Democrats, is third (13 percent), closely followed by Germany's most popular politician, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of the Greens (13 percent, with a few fewer votes than Guido). Trailing the pack is Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber, who has only received 160 votes, or 4 percent, so far.

While the pigs lead a happy life at Arche Warder, Europe's largest animal park for rare and endangered farm animals -- funded by Greenpeace -- their breed isn't doing too well; The so-called checkered Bentheim pig is only raised in a few places since its meat is considered too fatty to eat.