Und So Weiter: The German landscape: Elections, a constitutional crisis…

The Weekly Standard ^ | June 10, 2005 | Victorino Matus

[quidnunc]

…and Merkel as Thatcher, mein Gott!

Here are a few thoughts to ponder regarding Germany's descent into political kaos:

At what poiunt did Chancellor Gerhard Schröder deem that moving up elections by a year to this September would increase his chances of winning? After all, the process of moving up national elections is not that easy. First Schröder needs to call for a vote of confidence within the Bundestag. He needs to lose this vote, thereby resulting in the dissolution of his Social Democratic/Green coalition government — and thus the need for a new election. If the opposition Christian Democrats controlled parliament, this would be easy. But Schröder's party currently holds a seven-seat advantage — meaning he needs eight of his colleagues to vote against him. Still following? While it normally shouldn't be a problem for the chancellor to have his loyal supporters do his bidding, there is some speculation that for the younger members of his party, the last thing they would want is to dissolve the government and along with it, quite possibly, their pensions. So then what?

The chancellor could reach across the aisle to the Christian Democrats and try to form a grand coalition government. But if the CDU rejects this, could that possibly mean that Schröder remains in power until 2006? And what if German president Horst Köhler or the high court decides the entire affair to be unconstitutional? A poll question on the Frankfurter Allgemeine online edition asks, "Where should the government go from here?" Less than 8 percent favor a grand coalition. Only about 10 percent believe Schröder should remain in office until next year. Surprisingly, only 26 percent desire a vote of confidence. And more than 55 percent of respondents think Gerhard Schröder should resign immediately. …

-snip-

[Michael81Dus]

And some of you complain about President Bushs ´low´ approval rate...