>We over here have a choice of several parties that we elect into Bundestag. The choice is Scylla or Charybdis. And if you do not vote, the total goes done, abstention while voting on will be magically counted. The only way to say no is to paint the ballot, this is neither a vote nor abstention and your vote will go to nobody, it will effectively reduce everybody's count.

You left out that parties get "reimbursed" for their election effort / cost according to the percentage of votes they receive. Everywhere else abstention or uncountable votes will still be "counted" to fill the big bucket to reimburse the party efforts.

>And then we get those coalition governments. Horse-trading all days long.

Yupp, but you probably heard of TFGs "only on the first day"
which hit the news a bit to be forgotten tomorrow