Posted on 09/18/2005 4:11:18 PM PDT by Murtyo
Exit polls in Germany show conservative challenger Angela Merkel with a thin lead after Sunday's general elections, but not enough to form a center-right coalition. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder refuses to concede defeat and says he can still lead the next government.
It was one of the hardest-fought elections in German history, and the early indications are that Europe's biggest and richest nation may be heading for political stalemate rather than a clear mandate for change.
The first exit polls give Ms. Merkel's Christian Democrats between 35 and 36 percent of the vote and Mr. Schroeder's Social Democrats just under 34 percent. That is a worse than expected showing for the Christian Democrats and a better than expected result for Mr. Schroeder, who started the campaign 20 points behind his conservative rival.
Ms. Merkel's preferred coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) made a strong showing for a small party, polling more than 10 percent of the vote. But the combined result of the two conservative groups does not give them the majority in parliament Ms. Merkel needs to form a government.
Still, Ms. Merkel, who campaigned for radical tax and labor reforms to kick-start Germany's stagnant economy, says her Christian Democrats have earned the right to form the next government because they got the most votes.
"The union party has a very clear mandate to build a government in a very difficult situation," she explained. "Of course, for a CDU-FDP government, we do not have enough votes, but I will undertake the task of building a government which is able to function."
But a defiant Chancellor Schroeder indicated he will not concede and told cheering supporters in Berlin that the election was a defeat for Ms. Merkel.
"I do not understand, and I'm sure that people in Germany do not understand either how the CDU could be so self-confident and so arrogant, how the CDU can make and claim political leadership from a disastrous result in these elections. I feel reconfirmed to make sure that, over the next few years, there will be a stable government under my leadership," he said.
Mr. Schroeder says Ms. Merkel's calls for radical change are not what Germany needs and that his own moderate reforms will soon reduce Germany's 11 percent unemployment.
Negotiations to form a governing coalition have already begun. And experts say the next government will either be a grand coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats or a Social Democrat-led coalition with the Greens and the Free Democrats. But the Free Democrats say they will not join any such group. And both of the big parties have ruled out any coalition with the new Left Party made up of former East German communists and Social Democrat dissidents.
Professor Lutz Erbring, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University, says a grand coalition of the big parties would lead to stagnation but, given the Free Democrats' refusal to join a so-called traffic light coalition, is the most likely result.
"The prospects of a red-yellow-green coalition seems so remote at this point that the chances of a grand coalition unloved by everybody and desired by none is probably what is going to happen," said Mr. Erbring.
Professor Erbring says such a grand coalition could never agree on what reforms to undertake and that political paralysis would be the end result.
But, at this stage, it is too early to know just how the final results will play out and what kind of coalition will emerge in Europe's biggest nation. emailme.gif
Here we go again.
This problem of holding on is very typical of "close" elections in countries that use the parliamentary system. With no clear winner, one or more of the loser will try to prevent the party that won the most seats from forming a government. If a government is formed, it is likely to be extremely weak, setting the stage for another election.
is this herr gore?????
I'll bet Schroeder has been on the phone with the DNC asking if they could send some operatives over to Germany to perform one of their "recount" specials.
Exit polls don't matter, nor do headlines.
The number of parliment seats do. There, it appears, Schroeder will stay in power.
1. Is "Schroeder" German for "Gore"?
2. More seriously -- does anyone know what "Christian" and "Democrat" mean, in this context?
Dan
Gorehard Schroeder ???
sounds like the 2000, 2004 elections. You have Clinton and the Media who still thinks he's the president. Add Al Gore and John Kerry and the whole democratic party.
Hopefully it is good bye to Schroeder.
Sounds like he's getting a bit snippy.
Left and More Left. In Germany, Right just means Xenophobic Left. But I think Schroeder stands for Anti-American Left.
Thats funny. dean and jackson are on a plane heading over there now.
This only goes to prove that our world is divided by two well oiled propaganda machines.
We have lots of recount specialists here in Florida. We could ship them to Germany, unless they want to get snippy about it.
thanks for including pig pen. lol.
Well the evidence suggests that 34% of the German people have forgotten the days when it took a wheelbarrow full of German currency to buy a loaf of bread but that 35-46% of them haven't.
I guess one of the first problems they'll have to work on is designating somebody to be the "disenfranchised voters."
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I'll bet Schroeder has been on the phone with the DNC asking if they could send some operatives over to Germany to perform one of their "recount" specials.
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Don't laugh; I'd bet my soul on it.
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