Posted on 09/18/2005 12:12:37 AM PDT by alessandrofiaschi
Voting began in Germany's closely fought election today with millions of undecided voters holding the key to a result that will have major implications for economic reform in Europe.
Angela Merkel, a Christian Democrat (CDU) chancellor, is expected to emerge as Germany's first woman chancellor, displacing Gerhard Schroeder who has led Germany for the past seven years at the head of a centre-left government of Social Democrats and Greens.
A provisional result is expected to be announced in the early hours of Monday morning. The final opinion polls published on Friday gave Merkel's centre-right coalition with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) a slim lead in a race it once dominated.
High stakes For Germany and the rest of Europe, the stakes in the election are high. 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.
Analysts say that if Germany succeeds in pushing through reforms, they could be a model for change in the rest of Europe. Surveys show that most Germans believe the system needs changing but they are deeply uncertain about how far the changes should go and how the burden should be shared.
Schroeder's own "Agenda 2010" reforms to welfare and labour market rules have been the most ambitious attempt to overhaul the social security system in decades. They have been attacked by the conservatives and by some commentators as not going far enough. The reforms were bitterly resented by voters. - Reuters
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.
One could NOT have a more clear indication than that!!!
No I hadn't.
Thanks for linking and pinging it.
Hope our friend Dog Gone doesn't git blasted down in his bailywick!!!
thank you
So the Greens swing it, most likely to the 'watermelon' left?
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."
Ronny Hellbrecht -- "Of course we are frustrated - who wouldn't be frustrated with 20 percent unemployment?"
Er es morgen in Deutschland... (It is morning in Germany).
probably had a howard dean moment (how does arrrrgg translate into German?)....
Schroder taking a play out of the Gore/Kerry playbook...
Isn't Merkel from the former DDR?
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