"Oh mannomann, kann nicht glauben dass wir sind schon wieder auf der falschen seite Geschichtes."
Posted on 02/02/2003 9:18:38 AM PST by HAL9000
APNewsAlertBERLIN, Feb 02, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's party loses two German state elections, exit polls say.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved
MORE...
Yes, I want to hear more about this.......LOL.
Exit polls show defeat for Schroeder party in German state elections
By TONY CZUCZKA Associated Press Writer
BERLIN, Feb 02, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's party suffered a crushing defeat in two German state elections Sunday, failing to capitalize on a national anti-war mood that the chancellor tapped while campaigning for his Social Democrats, according to exit polls.
Feb 02, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- More than 10 million citizens were eligible to vote in the first electoral test since September national elections that narrowly returned Schroeder to power.
Schroeder, who governed Lower Saxony for more than eight years before becoming chancellor, tried to mobilize left-leaning core voters by touting his defiance of U.S. pressure for war and his view that Germany has a duty to seek peaceful solutions because of its militaristic past.
"My mandate, as I see it, is to fight for it with all my might that conflicts everywhere in the world are resolved in this way - and in no other," he told his party's closing rally Friday in Hanover, the Lower Saxony capital.
Edmund Stoiber, the defeated conservative challenger in last year's national election, criticized Schroeder in the Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag, saying he had undermined international trust in Germany with his "go-it-alone approach" against Washington on Iraq.
The apparent double defeat for the Social Democrats could increase pressure from the conservative opposition and inside Schroeder's party for bolder economic reforms, such as loosening the tightly regulated labor market and trimming social-welfare benefits.
Regardless of the outcome, Schroeder's party already ruled out personnel changes at the national level, where the Social Democrats govern with the junior Greens party of Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
"The Schroeder-Fischer administration will stay," Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrats' secretary-general, told the weekend edition of the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Best with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Fft! Fft! Fft! Fft !Fft!
"Oh mannomann, kann nicht glauben dass wir sind schon wieder auf der falschen seite Geschichtes."
"I see nothing!!!"
Party________2003 %______1999 %
==============================
CDU...........50.1.......43.4
SPD...........27.7.......39.4
Greens.........9.4........7.2
FDP............8.4........5.1
Results in Lower Saxony:
Party________2003 %______1999 %
==============================
CDU...........48.0.......35.9
SPD...........33.2.......47.9
Greens.........7.5........7.5
FDP............8.4........4.9
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.