Excellent Reply...
A lot of Germans are disgusted about Schroeders doings in Germanys name. If they could he would get a no-confidence vote and be thrown out. That can only happen though if members of his own party or the Greens vote against him and that is as unlikely as Democratic Senators voting for Impeachment against Clinton.
The mood regarding this is getting quite grim. That's why Merkel's trip and meeting with the Administration was so novel in Germany.
Germany's stance is truly a Anti-war stance and that what got Schroeder elected. Not an anti-American but an Anti-War stance... But then again... People are seeing Schroeder now more and more for what he truly is... A commie with Clintonesque behaviour....
And don't underestimate the role of the left wing press in Germany. Schroeder married one of their own and therefore get's cut lots of slack. His support in his own party is eroding quickly but they will not get rid of him cause then they would loose their own powerbase.
Realize though that with more and more local elections they are loosing more and more of their base. Loosing BIG in Lower Saxony and Hessen was just a start...
Technoir: Was du hier sagst glaubst du doch nicht selber????
Ah, thank you - that does help clear things up. I suspect that Schroeder, like American presidents, is more of a cheerleader in economics than an actor. Germany is faced with an interesting set of problems (this is the perception on this side of the Atlantic, at least) - a stagnant GDP, a diffusion of resources in bringing the East up to the West's level, a lessening of control as the Bundesbank shifts policy influence to Brussels, and a stubborn rate of unemployment exacerbated by strict trade union policies. None of these are insurmountable, but put together they're a pretty imposing package. I do know that Schroeder's proposed budget was an attempt to address some of the latter, and I have read that many in Germany feel it does not go far enough.
But politics is, after all, the art of the possible. Whether some reform, even if inadequate, is better than none is a question I shall leave to people who know more about economics than I do. In any case I insist that Germany's infrastructure is the most solid in Europe and that this giant is being tied down by a myriad of lilliputians in terms of rules, controls, and bureaucracy. It will break free - it must, because if it dies it will take the entire economy of Europe with it.