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Germany should completely close its borders to refugees if it is to solve to migrant crisis, a former President of Bavaria has said. Edmund Stoiber -- an elder statesmen in the Christian Social Union (CSU), Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian sister party -- said Germany had to change direction fast, and gave the Chancellor just two months to solve the problem. "Angela Merkel must now change her position, otherwise there will be disastrous consequences for Germany and Europe," Mr Stoiber said in an interview with Suddeutsche Zeitung. In what appeared to be an ultimatum, he added that if Mrs Merkel does...

The former head of the "Christian Social Union" party and former Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber delivered an ultimatum to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, demanding reduce the number of refugees in the country until the end of March, 2016. According to Oxu.Az, Stoiber called for the permanent closure of the refugee border with Austria. ...

BAD TOELZ, Germany: Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber, defeated by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in last September's German election by 6,000 votes, is taking revenge. His conservatives are set to humiliate Schroeder's Social Democrats in a Bavarian state election on September 21 and have put the chancellor's economic reforms -- seen as key to reviving Europe's largest economy -- on hold while they do it. It will be a year to the day since the more telegenic Schroeder came from behind to win re-election, profiting from his strong handling of a flood disaster and his popular opposition to the Iraq war. But...

Gerhard Schröder has just managed to hold on to his job as German chancellor, after one of the most closely fought elections since 1945. But a quarrel with the United States has tarnished his victory. Moreover, even Mr Schröder has had to concede that, within Germany itself, there are hard times ahead It's downhill from here FOR Gerhard Schröder, the next election campaign starts now. That might seem an odd assessment of the German chancellor’s election victory. He has, after all, managed to secure a second four-year term for the ruling coalition of his own Social Democratic Party (SPD) and...

Election turnout probably smaller than 1998   Large opinion Berlin/Rostock (dpa) - with the election to the Bundestag a smaller participation than before drew four years starting from 1998 lay it Germany far with 82,2 per cent in the late Sunday afternoon. However the returning officers reported high letter voter at the same time of a ratio. Everywhere the letter voters were not already taken in account. Thus a factor of uncertainty remained existing.As one inquires around approximately three hours before locking of the polling stations resulted in, to against 15.00 o'clock in most Lands of the Federal Republic...

Legislative: opening of the poll Sunday September 22, 2002 - 6h00 GMT BERLIN, 22 seven (AFP) - the poll of the quinzièmes legislative elections of the post-war period in Germany, the fourth since the reunification, opened at eight hours (06h00 GMT), the some 61,2 million voters having up to 18 hours (16h00 GMT) to elect their 598 deputies. The half of the deputies is elected with the uninominal direct vote for all with a turn in 299 districts and other half with proportional to the list system in each of the 16 regional States (Laender) German. To obtain seats...

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,...

html> FRANKFURT, Germany, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Germany goes to the polls Sunday for what looks to be the closest election in 50 years and the most bitter one in its impact on the country's longstanding alliance with the United States.The incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's blunt refusal to join any U.S.-led attack on Iraq, even with a United Nations mandate, soured relations that have now touched a new low over a German minister's reported claim that President George W. Bush was using foreign crises to detract attention from domestic troubles -- just like Adolf Hitler.Schroeder wrote a soothing and regretful...

In most democracies, the end of a long election campaign is received with relief by the voters. The citizens of Germany can be forgiven for being more grateful than average for the close of their proceedings. A miserable battle, which has revolved around personalities not policies and short-term populism not long-term dilemmas, has done nothing to address the real problems of Europe’s largest nation. It is difficult to conceive how any coalition which may emerge from the tortured post-poll negotiations will have either the mandate or the sense of mission to spur economic growth, slash unemployment or promote cohesion in...

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...

Germany's knife-edge general election campaign took an extraordinary new turn yesterday when the conservative candidate, Edmund Stoiber, pledged himself to the deportation of 4,000 alleged Islamic militants if he is voted in as chancellor on Sunday. "There always has to be a difference between tolerance and stupidity," he declared. Behind in most polls, the Bavarian governor - a hard-liner on law and order - appeared to be making a last-gasp effort to tap into fears over a link between immigration and terrorism in Europe. He told a rowdy crowd, packed into the market square of Werne, on the edge of...

Whoever wins the general election in Germany this Sunday, the losers will be the German people. This campaign has been disastrous for the country's reputation abroad, a reputation which had been carefully cultivated since the inception of the Federal Republic by statesmen of the calibre of Konrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl, for whom the Atlantic alliance was the cornerstone of German foreign policy. The German electorate agreed: every time politicians pandered to anti-Americanism, they lost. This time, it has been different. Chancellor Schröder and his challenger, Edmund Stoiber, are both canny provincial politicians, but there is...

Germany, which was once considered the most important country in Europe, is sliding slowly but ineluctably towards irrelevance. Economically, Germany has for years been the sick man of Europe, although most people around the world have only just woken up to this reality, and Germans themselves still do not understand it. Given the history of the past hundred years, the waning of Germany’s political significance will be treated with even greater disbelief than its descent into long-term economic stagnation. Yet political irrelevance and economic stagnation are fates which the German people seem to welcome with open arms. This is the...

Abstract A Bad Move and the Consequences The German electoral campaign becomes more unreal the closer it comes to the end. If a single issue has taken on nearly absurd dimensions, it is Chancellor Schröder's over-hasty dispute about possible German military involvement in a strike against Iraq. No matter how delicate the issue, the Chancellor is showing us that he will stop at nothing to fend off electoral defeat. Schröder gives the impression that, any day now, the Germans will be pressured to join a war against Baghdad. Not only is the Chancellor apparently uninterested in a dialogue on the...

Germans see positive side to Bush speech Glimmer of hope for Security Council solution German leaders' first reaction to U.S. President George Bush's keenly awaited speech to the United Nations on Thursday was generally positive, but they gave no indication that Germany would change its position that it is not prepared to back military action against Iraq, although some politicians outside of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's coalition have not ruled out German participation with a UN mandate. They did, however, sound encouraged at Bush's suggestion that he might still be prepared to forsake military action if the world body can find...

Schroeder, challenger seek advantage in Germany's first U.S.-style TV debate Sun Aug 25, 3:07 PM ET By TONY CZUCZKA, Associated Press Writer BERLIN - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative challenger faced off Sunday in an unprecedented TV debate four weeks before national elections, both gambling that they can sway the many wavering voters in the closely fought race to lead Germany. Schroeder launched confidently into the 75-minute duel with Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber, his standing bolstered by taking charge of relief efforts after major flooding that has dominated German headlines for the past two weeks. "When I look at...

Rift over tax amnesty adds to Schröder's woes By Haig Simonian in Berlin Published: August 13 2002 20:48 | Last Updated: August 13 2002 20:48 A serious split emerged on Tuesday in Germany's governing Social Democratic party just six weeks before it faces tough general elections, with public differences between Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Hans Eichel, (pictured) his finance minister.The divisions over a plan to grant tax evaders an amnesty if they pay up and use the extra revenue to finance new jobs, reflect growing strains in the SPD. The party is trailing its rightwing challengers in the opinion...

Schröder’s millstoneAug 8th 2002 From The Economist Global Agenda Yet more gloomy economic figures released in Germany this week will make Gerhard Schröder's uphill battle for re-election, which he launched on Monday, more difficult GERHARD SCHRÖDER kicked off his general-election campaign this week at the head of a dispirited party with many people in Germany convinced that he will not win re-election as chancellor when voters go to the polls on September 22nd. No one denies that he has a battle ahead of him. The ruling coalition, which comprises Mr Schröder’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party led...

German unemployment rises to 9.7 percent in July in new blow to Schroeder campaign By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press Writer BERLIN (AP) -- German unemployment climbed back above the psychologically important 4 million mark in July, dealing a new blow to the government's re-election hopes Wednesday just as Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder tries to breathe new life into his faltering campaign. The unadjusted unemployment rate in Germany's biggest economy rose to 9.7 percent, from 9.5 percent in June. Less than seven weeks before the nation votes, Schroeder conceded that no improvement was likely before the final quarter of the year. Schroeder...