LIVE THREAD - German polls closed: AP: SCHROEDER DEFEATED!

SABC NEWS ^ | September 18, 2005, 08:15

[Grampa Dave]

Maybe Merkel can/will do what GW did during the early part of his term, go directly to the people and get them to force tax cuts and a different economic direction.

They have the Austrian model to follow. By using the Austrian model, they can avoid acting like America which would turn off the moderates.

[SierraWasp]

One could NOT have a more clear indication than that!!!

[SierraWasp]

I assume you've seen and absorbed this?

[Grampa Dave]

No I hadn't.

Thanks for linking and pinging it.

[SierraWasp]

Yer welcome!

Hope our friend Dog Gone doesn't git blasted down in his bailywick!!!

[anonymoussierra]

thank you

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

So the Greens swing it, most likely to the 'watermelon' left?

[SunkenCiv]

CDU backs Merkel amid German election stalemate
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1464770.htm

"She called for CDU members and their CSU allies to either back her or sack her. In an overwhelming show of support, she won 98 per cent of the vote."

What coalition might work after German election?
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=103171

"CDU/CSU + FDP + GREENS -- The 'Black-Yellow-Green', recently dubbed 'Jamaica' after the colours of the Jamaican flag. It may appear unlikely and has never been tried even at regional level, but would allow conservative leader Angela Merkel to become chancellor. The Greens have criticised the opposition's labour market ideas as socially unjust and had hoped to introduce a minimum wage. The Greens also have a different view on health care."

German Election Deepens Sense of Paralysis
By JOHN LEICESTER
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5288503,00.html

"The inconclusive outcome of the closely fought election in Germany, Europe's biggest yet one of its most sluggish economies, only deepens the prospects for stagnation on the continent at a time when pressing domestic and international problems call for decisiveness."

Eastern frustration played big role in German election
By Katrin Bennhold International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/20/news/divide.php

"Easterners robustly backed the Left Party, a recently formed union of disaffected Social Democrats and former Communists from the East, eating into support for Schröder's Social Democrats. They also shunned Merkel, who would have become the first chancellor from Eastern Germany had she won a majority, but whose center-right program for painful reforms held little appeal."

[FrankR]

"...Some five million Germans are out of work, the country's pensions system is in crisis, its public finances are overstretched and the economy that once drove growth in Europe is now acting as a drag on the rest of the continent."

Ahhhh...Socialism...the dream of the American left...

[SunkenCiv]

Ronny Hellbrecht -- "Of course we are frustrated - who wouldn't be frustrated with 20 percent unemployment?"

[AdrianR]

From what I've heard, Dresden is about the same as Philadelphia or Detroit as far as voting goes, and that gives Herr Schroeder the win.

Not exactly. CDU candidate won Dresden three years ago, although with just 33.8% of vote.

[Schwaeky]

Er es morgen in Deutschland... (It is morning in Germany).

[Schwaeky]

probably had a howard dean moment (how does arrrrgg translate into German?)....

[Schwaeky]

Schroder taking a play out of the Gore/Kerry playbook...

[Schwaeky]

Isn't Merkel from the former DDR?