Posted on 09/18/2005 11:45:50 AM PDT by anymouse
Exit polls showed conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party leading in German parliamentary elections Sunday but falling short of the majority she needed to form a center-right coalition as the nation's first female chancellor.
Gerhard Schroeder refused to concede defeat and said he could still theoretically remain in power if talks with other parties were successful.
"I feel myself confirmed in ensuring on behalf of our country that there is in the next four years a stable government under my leadership," he said to cheering supporters at his Social Democrat party headquarters.
But Merkel claimed her party received a mandate from voters to form a new coalition government to carry out her plan to mend frayed ties with the United States.
"What is important now is to form a stable government for the people in Germany, and we ... quite clearly have the mandate to do that," she said.
Both Schroeder and Merkel said they would talk to all parties except the new Left Party, a combination of ex-communists and renegade Social Democrats.
Sunday's vote centered on different visions of Germany's role in the world and how to fix its sputtering economy. Schroeder touted the country's role as a European leader and counterbalance to America, while Merkel pledged to reform the moribund economy and repair ties with Washington.
An exit poll by ZDF public television showed Merkel's Christian Democrats at 35.7 percent and the Social Democrats 33.6 percent. Merkel's preferred coalition partner — the pro-business Free Democrats — had 10.4 percent, while current Schroeder coalition partner Greens received 8.2 percent.
ARD public television showed near-identical results, with Merkel's party at 35.7 percent and the Social Democrats at 33.7 percent.
The Christian Democrats' projected totals were considerably worse than expected. Merkel's party consistently polled above 40 percent during the campaign.
The results open a period of uncertainty as the parties negotiate to form a government. Voters were choosing lawmakers for the 598-seat lower house of parliament, which elects the chancellor to head the government.
Had Merkel reached a majority with the Free Democrats, they would have formed a center-right government to push through her proposals to get the economy going and cut unemployment by making it easier for small firms to fire people, cutting payroll taxes and giving companies more flexibility to opt out of one-size-fits-all regional wage agreements.
If she does become chancellor, she likely will have to water down her program as she partners with a party to her left in order to hold 50 percent of the seats in parliament. Merkel's party already controls the upper house of parliament.
The most likely combination, analysts have said, is a "grand coalition" between Merkel's party and Schroeder's party. Most predictions were that Schroeder would not participate in such a government, but his defiant statements Sunday cast doubt on that.
Free Democrats leader Guido Westerwelle said his party would not work with the current government pair, the Social Democrats and Greens.
If the new parliament cannot elect a chancellor in three tries, President Horst Koehler could appoint a minority government led by the candidate with a simple majority.
Merkel's plan to patch up relations with Washington, which frayed after Schroeder's refusal to back the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, resonated with voters, as did her position that Turkey should not be allowed full membership in the 25-nation European Union.
"A country like Turkey just doesn't belong in the European community," said voter Torsten Quade, 41. "We're already going to let in countries like Romania and Bulgaria, and this is already too much because of how far behind they are."
But other voters said they supported Schroeder's party because he kept Germany out of the Iraq war and pushed for diplomacy to resolve concerns about Iran's nuclear program. Germany is one of three nations representing the EU in talks with Tehran.
"When you have a son coming of military age, this makes it even more important to vote for a government that isn't eager to go to war," said Stefan Deutscher, a 38-year-old business consultant voting in Berlin.
Schroeder called for the election a year ahead of time in frustration at resistance to his attempts to fix Europe's biggest economy, as unemployment hit record highs in his seven years in power and growth was sluggish. His limited measures cutting taxes and long-term jobless benefits have been slow to show convincing results.
Not very original or funny.
You Americans go crazy when Europeans depict Bush as Hitler, so don't set a bad example.
This is especially distasteful considering Schröder's family history.
Also, our parish benefits from an order of priests called the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, many of whom are Austrian or German. We in the US are now considered missionary territory. : )
Schröder's father was already an impoverished labourer before he was conscripted and later killed in Romania in 1944, just after his son was born. I think it was last year his grave was finally found in some Romanian village, and Schröder made a trip there to pay his first and last respects.
His mother later remarried, but the family was unlucky and stayed poor all through the 50s, and was the German equivalent of "white trash". But he worked his way up out of poverty by sheer hard work and ambition. It explains a lot about his character.
Considering the consequences Hitler's war had for him personally, I consider this defacement of his picture to be distasteful and also very childish, to say the least.
You know he voted FOR the 87 Billion, before he voted AGAINST it...
Taking a page from the Al Gore handbook?
is schroeder going to form an alliance with the communist party
No!
Read the rest of the thread.
algore algore algore...soreloserman.
The Gore/Kerry game when liberals lose elections is not playing well in the financial markets. The German ETF fund, EWG has lost big time today because of the fraud of the German left.
MarketWatch
Market Pulse: German ETF tumbles after election deadlock
Monday September 19, 9:39 am ET
By John Spence
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- An exchange-traded fund tracking German stocks lost ground in early action Monday after both Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats claimed the right to form a governing coalition in parliamentary elections in Germany. The iShares MSCI Germany Index Fund last lost 2.3% to $19.27"
This shows that the increases this past month were based on Merkel being elected, if she isn't Germany and EWG are a lost cause.
The legacy of Gore lives on in our lives. World elections and U.S. ones on every level are now contested by liberals if they are the least bit close. And often they succeed in their stalling games and post-election vote-grabbing tactics, as with the so-called current "governor" of Washington state.
Well, you'll certainly find childishness on any internet forum of this size. I have been frustrated reading the stupid things said about New Orleans policemen as if they were all looters and thugs. My nephew is a New Orleans cop who stayed on duty and did his job during all of the hurricane and its aftermath. Thanks for the info about Schroder.
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Remember US history? John Quincy Adams? If Schroeder manages to keep his post through back-door dealing, it will be John Quincy Adams all over again. "A corrupt alliance." It would be painful for the left, very painful. A side of me hopes he succeeds.
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It was probably just some dumb kid. Nothing to really worry about.
[Comparing US History with this Schroeder Potential]
[John Quincy] Adams, the candidate of the North, fell behind Gen. Andrew Jackson in both popular and electoral votes, but received more than William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. Since no candidate had a majority of electoral votes, the election was decided among the top three by the House of Representatives. Clay, who favored a program similar to that of Adams, threw his crucial support in the House to the New Englander.
Upon becoming President, Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State. Jackson and his angry followers charged that a "corrupt bargain" had taken place and immediately began their campaign to wrest the Presidency from Adams in 1828.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ja6.html
It looks like Germany will be forced into a "Grand Coalition" with the conservatives and the leftists biting the bullet and forming a bipartisan government possibly with neither Merkel or Schroeder as Chancellor. A compromise Prime Minister might be chosen from one of the third parties(Most likely the Free Democrats) or the German equivalent of a "RINO" in the US might be selected.
As of today, right leaning parties have 286 seats and left leaning parties have 328(including the Left Party's 54)
Also, if Schroeder bites his tongue, swallows hard and goes back on his promise to not include the Left Party in a coalition, he can still be Chancellor.
If Merkel bites her tongue, swallows hard, gets down on her knees and begs and looks like a sell out political opportunst, she can possibly get the Green Party in her coalition and become Chancellor. Whew!
The city of Dresden in former East Germany could give Schroeder the seats he needs to tie Merkel when they vote the first week of October. Dresden is like American Republicans hoping for a majority of votes in the District of Columbia.
That's what I'm going to call the extreme Left wing of the DemoRAT part from now on...Kennedy, Kerry, Durbin, Leahy, Shumer, etc.
"When you have a son coming of military age, this makes it even more important to vote for a government that isn't eager to go to war," said Stefan Deutscher, a 38-year-old business consultant voting in Berlin.
How stupid is this person? Didn't Schroeder send German troops to Afghanistan? This person's son could die there just as easily as in Iraq...probably more easily because the UN is probably taking bribes and stealing money for their troop's equipment as we speak there.
Well, when the Germans and French and other lothesome Europeans stop putting up Bush pee targets in their toilets, we'll talk further, okay?
Bump for later. I want some of those Gore photos for my photo archive!
What? Never heard of this.
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