Posted on 05/22/2005 10:37:11 PM PDT by MadIvan
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrat Party suffered a resounding defeat in its historical heartland yesterday when voters in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) rejected almost 40 years of rule by the party.
Defeat to the Christian Democratic Union caused Mr Schröder's party to call for general elections to be brought forward to the autumn.
The outcome of the vote, which is seen as a dry-run for the next federal election, will have repercussions way beyond the state that has driven the German economy since the war, and amounts to the biggest shake-up for the political landscape in almost a decade.
The loss of NRW is a strong indicator that Mr Schröder's party will be ejected from office at the next general election. Analysts expressed surprise at the SPD's proposal for early elections, but said it could be an attempt by Mr Schröder to silence Left-wingers in the party who had hoped that a defeat in the state would force it to water down its reforms.
Speaking last night, Mr Schröder rejected suggestions that he would resign as a consequence of his worst defeat in seven years but he admitted he had suffered a huge loss in support. Early elections, he said, were necessary so that he could find out if he had any political backing to push through his economic reforms.
NRW was the last of Germany's 16 regions to be governed by a coalition of the SPD and the Greens. The only such partnership left is the federal government in Berlin.
Frustration over unpopular government reforms such as the introduction of charges to see a family doctor, a cut in pensions and a drastic cut in unemployment benefit for the long-term unemployed fuelled discontent in the state.
Exit polls last night indicated that the SPD had secured 37.5 per cent of the vote, and the CDU 45 per cent, a loss for the Left of 5.3 per cent from the last state election in 2000, and a solid gain for the conservatives of eight per cent.
Less than half an hour after the first results were published, Franz Münterfering, the chairman of the SPD, announced that the party would push for a general election to be held 16 months before schedule. He called the result a "bitter defeat" for the SPD.
But the decision would depend on a vote today in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, and Horst Köhler, the German president, would have the final say.
Mr Münterfering said he and Mr Schröder were keen to "clear up" the imbalance between the lower house, over which the government coalition parties still narrowly have control, and the upper house, which is dominated by the conservatives.
Angela Merkel, the head of the CDU, could hardly hide her jubilation. "The voters have given the Christian Democratic Union a sensational result today," she said. Mrs Merkel is now on course to win the chancellorship at the next election.
The Left's defeat follows eight consecutive wins in the state, which it had long considered its invincible stronghold due to solid support from the dominant working class. The drift away from the SPD was put down to voter anger over rising unemployment, which currently affects 12.1 per cent in the region and a chronically anaemic economy. The region is also burdened with a debt of £76 billion.
Jeez Ivan, who would WANT to be Chancellor of that pest-hole? Whoever is Chancellor is going to have to make the hard economic decisions that Shroeder took baby steps making, there's no other way around the problem of being an economic basket case. The German economy desperately needs to be restructured and reformed.
Whoever gets the top job is going to last 1, maybe 2, but probably 1 term because they're going to have to make the same kinds of decisions.
Rotsa Ruck to 'em
Bleh. Roman Sunday and Monday are backwards. Sunday was named for Sol and Monday was named for Luna (it's late and I'm tired).
"So anyway I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make (if any at all), but suffice to say that we have heavy Norse influences in our language and some customs, but at the same time some things are way older."
I will conjecture that this linguistic link may have come through the olde English, from the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.
In days of olde, perhaps their language was much like your claim of Scandinavian influences.
It has been shown that the closest link to English is to the Frisian language, on the north coast of Holland.
In any event, the continental German and Scandinavian are linked and similar. But different, to.
Modern English is a complex mix, but almost all of the most common 100 words derive from Germanic roots (Germanic meaning all types of German).
In ancient Greek Monday is the Day of Selene, not Artemis. These were the days:
Sunday ... Heliou
Monday ... Selenes
Tuesday ... Areos
Wednesday ... Hermou
Thursday ... Dios (Zeus)
Friday ... Aphrodites
Saturday ... Cronou
In modern Greek, these are the days:
Sunday ... Kiriaki ... Lord's Day (or Prime Day)
Monday ... Deutera ... Second Day
Tuesday ... Triti ... Third Day
Wednesday ... Tetarti ... Fourth Day
Thursday ... Pempti ... Fifth Day
Friday ... Paraskevi ... Preparation Day (for the Sabbath)
Saturday ... Savato ... Sabbath Day
Not exactly creative, and actually borrowed from the Jewish system except for the Lord's Day (Sunday).
PS. The irony is that we have indirectly retained the pagan Greek day names but they abandoned them due to the association with paganism. As an idle aside, not too long ago I read a rather interesting article about the nascent revival of classical Greek paganism in Greece, with at least 200,000 Greeks (perhaps as many as 500,000) worshipping the Olympian gods and restoring the pagan mysteries. They call the modern adaptation Hellenismos.
You are correct, Le Pen is the very far right in France and I hope they vote for the guy in droves.
Not that I believe as he does or even know many of his views. I just hope it happens because it would drive the socially liberal in France over the edge.
Just love to see social unrest in France.
Go french, tear the place up.
Still, that would clarify the whole business politically. The current results are somewhat ambiguous as regard the true intend and direction of the German electorate.
Christian Democrats. People in Europe might just see this as a chance to get their identities back and stop being considered second class citizens to their Muslim brethren.
Or maybe people are realizing Socialism just doesn't work.
I do hope that pansies Shroder&Chirac are ousted form power. The USA should however never give them the french&germans anything as to support, foreign aid and withdraw all our military. It is time for these little dweeb countries to face the piper for their anti-american ways. If we assist them militarily or financially again they will just spit in our Remove the USA sugar tit of goodness, from the french and germans mouths.
Thanks for the post.
Boycotting German products is as important as boycotting products made by French owned companies.
Regime change in the anti American Euro trash countries is as important as regime changes in the Islamofascist controlled countries of the Middle East.
Christine Gregoire, please pick up the red courtesy phone. Mr. Schroeder is suddenly in need of your "expertise."
It is really unclear to me how much of this vote really was about m"rejecting reforms. If that were the case why the CDU?
I understand that it might well be a mere protest vote, and that they had little other place to go given the coalition with the Greens, but, on the other hand, maybe all of the "reform rejection" rhetoric is just media spin.
Note we heard that same nonsense in the UK election that just passed, but this time focused on Iraq. If the Tories did so well, how is that a repudiation of Iraq? It seems far more plausible that it signals disillusionment with Labour and the Euro crowd.
We heard similar spin over the Howard in in Australia,and there seems to be a growing chorus if similar rationalizations forming to spin away Canadian politics.
Not to doubt you findings, but, do you travel far from the "base" for these conversations?
My experience in Germany since 1988 is quite a bit different than your own.
I get as far from base as I can as often as I can.
In fact the futher I get from base, the better I'm treated.
I read that current polls in France slightly favor those voting "non." I'd love to see Chirac and his gang go down in a humiliating defeat. Schoeder's problems in Germany are far worse than Chirac's, at least at this point. Germany's unemployment rate is over 12%, and only getting worse. Exports are down sharply due to the value of the Euro over the Dollar, therefore German manufacturing is taking a big hit. I suppose Schroeder will resort to his infamous America bashing to help his re-election prospects, but a friend of mine whom lives in Munich said that German voters are weary of rhetoric, and if he resorts to trashing the US again it will only hurt his party, the Social Democrats, and their coalition partners, the Greens, even more.
I'm sure Schroeder has his Oil-for-Food money in some Swiss bank that will make his defeat less painful. However, it is heartwarming to see Pres. Bush and Prime Minister Blair winning re-election, while the Euro-weasels are going down in flames along with their anti-God EU Constitution.
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