Free Republic

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has faced renewed criticism from the United States as he began his second term in office. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld criticised the way Mr Schroeder's re-election campaign was fought, saying it had poisoned relations between Washington and Berlin.And how. Who does Schroeder think is going to invest in his country now? The Iraqis? Cue laughter. - Ivan BBC Washington correspondent Nick Bryant says George Bush has so far failed to telephone the German chancellor to offer congratulations and Mr Rumsfeld pointedly refused to meet his German counterpart at a Nato meeting in Warsaw.Oh dear, say...

Germany's stock market has tumbled following the election victory of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Red-Green coalition.Oh let's see, elect a government that is hostile to business, and what do you expect? The German electorate is being punished with a death by a thousand cuts, erm, stocks falling. ;) - Ivan The Dax index of leading German shares fell 102 points to 2,963 by 1000 GMT. Other major European markets rose. Mr Schroeder's coalition's narrow victory depressed stock traders who have seen shares fall to their lowest levels in five years. "This is an uncomfortable position for the stock market," said Johannes...

Gerhard Schröder was last night holding on to a wafer-thin lead before today's German general election as his government became embroiled in a diplomatic row with Washington over its anti-war rhetoric. A final poll published by the influential Allensbach organisation predicted that the Chancellor's governing Social Democrats would capture 37.5 per cent of the vote, putting it just half a percentage point ahead of Edmund Stoiber's conservatives. Statistically insignificant - IvanWhat promised to be the closest fought German election in more than a decade was, however, overshadowed by a blistering dispute between Berlin and Washington over Mr Schröder's outspoken criticism...

She may have been an unknown outside her native Germany, but thanks to some ludicrous remarks comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler, Herta Daubler-Gmelin has achieved her 15 minutes of international fame. Germany’s justice minister also ensured — should Gerhard Schröder scrape home in today’s election — that he should not expect an early invitation to Camp David. Even for Mr Schröder, whose outright opposition to war against Iraq has tapped into anti-American sentiment and boosted his election chances, this was a lurch too far. It also underlined the poverty of ideas that has characterised the campaign in Europe’s largest,...

Germany's justice minister has denied likening George W Bush to Adolf Hitler, two days before her party faces the end of a cliffhanger election campaign. Face it, Fraulein - you're busted - Ivan Herta Daeubler-Gmelin said she had been misquoted in a newspaper report which angered the US president and prompted demands for her to resign. Mrs Daeubler-Gmelin is from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic Party which had a wafer-thin lead in the polls going into the final weekend of electioneering. Mr Schroeder and his rival for the post of German leader, Edmund Stoiber of the Christian Democrats, are holding...

BERLIN -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder hopes to boost support for his Social Democrats in a September election by stressing his opposition to a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, party officials said on Friday. SPD General Secretary Franz Muentefering said Schroeder had told a meeting of the party leadership that his government would do everything possible to avoid a conflict with Iraq, by working with its European partners and through the United Nations. Muentefering said even if Germany were not involved in an attack, such a war would further hurt the country's sagging economy, adding that the party's election slogan...