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

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

[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

[GiveEmDubya]

I'll be on this site:

http://www3.dw-world.de/wahlgrafik/index.php?lang=en

[cloud8]

> Best of all, the reprehensible street thug, Joschka Fischer, is also out.

I'll drink a Prost to that!

[MDspinboyredux]

That was about a pre election debate.

[Dog]

No it doesn't....you need to read more careful....from your link.

Newspaper editors were almost unanimous that Chancellor Schröder won Sunday's long-awaited debate

THE DEBATE.....NOT THE ELECTION.

Be more careful....

[americanbychoice2]

Michael, it looks like the worst of all outcomes?
What a shame.

[processing please hold]

Part of me wants Merkel to win, part of me wants Schroeder to win, and watch Germany enter a recession so they learn why socialism doesn't work.

I know how you feel. It's called twisting the blade. :-)

[alessandrofiaschi]

ME TOO! Please, tone down!

[anonymoussierra]

thank you

---

"I am watching this I'm not fully sure what's going on. I don't want to jump yet."

---

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,375257,00.html

[Dog]

HUH?

Tone down what....Heart only made a comment.

[anonymoussierra]

thank you"Dog" for correction

[MDspinboyredux]

AP REPORTING SCHOEDER DEFEATED!!!

[Erasmus]

Part of me wants Merkel to win, part of me wants Schroeder to win, and watch Germany enter a recession so they learn why socialism doesn't work.

As my old buddy Sid W Sodnagel once said, "The only thing we learn from history is that people don't learn from history."

[alessandrofiaschi]

not you, sorry

[MDspinboyredux]

FOX ANNOUNCED ON TV THAT AP REPORTS THAT SCHROEDER HAS BEEN DEFEATED

[Dog]

Yeah baby!

[Right_in_Virginia]

Darn! You beat me to the post! ;-)

[Dog]

Heartsong didn't do anything wrong...why did you tell him/her to tone it down?

[melancholy]

Just heard on FOX that exit polls show that Schroeder will be defeated! Serves him right.

[flieger]

SPD 33%
Grune 8%
Linke/PDS 8%

I feel sick! I think I have to vomit!
What a nation full of idiots.

[shield]

I haven't followed this election too much, however, what I've read is leadership will not change.

If it does and a conservative candidate wins...this tells the real deal in Germany. Germans look differently than the loony media portrays these German citizen views.