Free Republic

BERLIN (AFP) - German opposition challenger Angela Merkel huddled with her closest advisors in a bid to get her election. After holding a clear advantage for much of the election campaign, Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats have seen their lead slashed in half by Schroeder's Social Democrats with just four days to go until Sunday's voting. Merkel now risks seeing her hopes of forming a coalition with her preferred partners, the Free Democrats, evaporate. In a campaign dominated by the economy and tax, Schroeder has apparently succeeded in scaring undecided voters away from the Christian Democrats by homing in on controversial...

GERMANY'S conservatives said today they would continue to play the Rolling Stones song Angie on their leader Angela Merkel's campaign trail despite complaints from the band and requests from a record company to stop. "The song will be played tonight" at a rally in Hamburg, said a spokeswoman for Ms Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) which is tipped to win September elections, paving the way for her to become Germany's first woman chancellor. She said that the party had been assured by the German music copyright group GEMA that they were allowed to use the Stones' 1973 hit. The European...

FRANKFURT--Germany is on the brink of revolution. If the signs (and polls) aren't wrong, a woman will soon lead the country for the first time. She is Angela Merkel, a trained physicist raised in East Germany, a pastor's daughter who grew up under communism. With no power base of her own, she has managed over the past six years, with energy, clarity and tactical skill, to prevail over various long-established, conspiratorial old-boy networks in her Christian Democratic Party, the CDU/CSU. She lacks any of the trappings of the loyal party cadre; but she is capable of formulating political concepts that...

The German Christian Democrats that suggested that Turkey be given a "privileged partnership" have agreed to give Ukraine a privileged membership going forward. Wolfgang Schauble, foreign affairs expert for the German Christian Democratic Party (CDU), the main opposition party, said Ukraine, as part of Europe, may become a full member of the European Union (EU) in the future. Schauble's views are suspected to be the general position of the CDU. The Social Democratic Party which is currently in power supports Turkey's full membership and maintains a distant position on Ukraine's membership.

BERLIN (AP) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder insisted on Monday that there was no turning back in cutting social programs despite pressure to reverse the unpopular measures after his party suffered a rout in a German state election. Schroeder's Social Democrats lost 45 percent of their voter support Sunday in the small western state of Saarland, while the conservative Christian Democrats - the main opposition party at the national level - retained control of the local legislature and the governor's post. Schroeder said Monday he "would have wished for a better result." But in a speech to labor leaders, he said...

It is time we vote our religious convictions! Enough is enough! We're sick of the party of Michael Moore, Whoopie Goldberg and Barbara Streisand! I think we have reached a point in time when committed Christians, who believe in the Bible, in traditional moral values expressed in the 10 Commandments, and believe in family values based on marriage between one man and one woman, can no longer in good conscience, vote for most Democratic candidates. Not only is this an issue for Christians, but for Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Hindus, Shinto’s, and practicioners of other religions. I am not a religious...

<p>May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Germany's main opposition parties have a 23 percentage-point lead over Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats in voting intentions for the June 13 elections to the European Parliament, an opinion poll showed.</p> <p>The Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, would get 48 percent of the vote, with the Social Democrats receiving 25 percent, according to the survey by the Berlin-based Forsa polling company for Stern magazine and RTL television.</p>

BERLIN – Two years of talks to try to hammer out an agreement on German immigration reform are in danger of collapse with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats battling to keep the reforms alive after the junior member of his coalition, the Greens, pulled out of the cross-party negotiations. While the conservative Christian Democrat–led opposition said Tuesday that they were prepared to press on with the negotiations, the Greens decision to abandon the talks have led to an outbreak of tension within Schroeder's ruling coalition. Interior Minister Otto Schily, who is also a member of the Social Democrats, roundly criticised...

<p>Berlin, , May. 3 (UPI) -- The German Green Party pulled out of the country's heated immigration negotiations, potentially threatening its position as a ruling coalition partner.</p> <p>"The game is up, there is no sense in continuing this conversation," said Green Party head Reinhard Buetikofer, the German newspaper Die Welt reports.</p>

Despite rumblings from some high-ranking Christian Democrats, the party's chairwoman said this week that Germany's governing coalition made a mistake by opposing the U. S.-led war against Iraq. Angela Merkel....

<p>BERLIN -- Germans turned out in force yesterday to protest their government's drive to trim the welfare state, heeding labor unions' call to "stand up and be counted" as leaders across Europe struggle to reform creaking social programs.</p> <p>More than 200,000 protesters, blowing whistles and waving union flags, gathered in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate for the biggest rally yet against Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's year-old reform drive. Organizers said turnout nationwide topped 500,000, with big rallies also held in Cologne and Stuttgart.</p>

<p>BERLIN, March 19 (UPI) -- A German Muslim woman watching her son's trial in juvenile court was expelled from a Berlin courtroom after refusing to uncover her head.</p> <p>The expulsion marks the latest chapter in Germany's debate about the place of religious clothing in public life.</p>

Most Germans admit their country needs painful economic and welfare reforms, but very few seem willing to support those politicians daring enough to implement them. Unfortunately, that's likely to prolong the misery.German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats are wallowing at all-time lows in opinion polls and the party's membership rolls continue to shrink dramatically each month. The problem? Schröder's center-left coalition finally got serious last year about implementing cuts to Germany's generous yet untenable welfare system. The Social Democrats (SPD) and their partners, the Greens, also began to loosen restrictive labor laws in an effort to lower the country's chronically...

BERLIN - Germany's main conservative opposition Monday unveiled a package of sweeping reforms including at an overhaul of the nation’s inflexible labour market and further big tax cuts. Apart from a dramatic retreat from Germany’s tough hire-and-fire laws, the plan announced by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), also calls for slashing taxes in 2007 by EUR 10.7 billion and includes proposals for simplifying the country’s lumbering tax system. The tax cuts would be in addition to the reductions to be launched next year by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrat-led government. Unveiling details of the plan, CDU chief Angela Merkel said...

MUNICH - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, his government's popularity dropping amid its social welfare and labour reform agenda, vowed Friday that Berlin will continue to pursue the reforms necessary to keep Germany competitive. In Munich, meeting top industrial federation leaders, Schroeder said the changes needed in Germany were necessary to meet the international competition and because of a society getting increasingly older. Schroeder's remark came before an audience of employers and industrial federation bosses who are demanding further cuts in corporate taxes and other costs imposed by the state, while also opposing any additional charges. Ahead of the meeting, leading...

Germany: An Obituary for Structural Reforms February 26, 2004 1503 GMT Summary Germany's opposition party is ringing the death knell for economic reforms under the current government, while the chancellor vigorously is calling for help from the European Central Bank. The fate of the German economy -- both in the short and long term -- increasingly rests outside Berlin. Analysis Friedrich Merz, deputy parliamentary leader of the opposition Christian Democrats, said in an interview published Feb. 25 by The Financial Times that reforms to Germany's tax system are unlikely in the current Parliament and will happen only if there is...

Right-wing tide surges straight to the heart of EuropeBy Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels (Filed: 22/04/2002) EUROPE'S rising Right-wing tide swept into the core countries of the European Union yesterday, rocking Germany's Social Democrats and threatening France's socialist government.Over the last two years, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, and Norway have all turned against the centre-Left consensus that had such a lock on Europe during the 1990s, opting instead for law-and-order parties promising tax cuts, deregulation, and a much tougher line on immigrants.But the pace is now quickening as ever more radical figures build mass support, often outflanking the conventional centre-Right...