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Kick out Schroder Nazi and put in a Freedom Fighter...
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article314480.ece
Talks offer glimpse of hope in Germany's post-election stand-off
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 23 September 2005
Germany inched a fraction closer to ending its political stalemate after Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his conservative rival Angela Merkel agreed to continue talks on forming a grand coalition government after last Sunday's inconclusive general election.
But in their first discussions since the election, both leaders were adamant they would not give up their claims to the Chancellor's job in a possible governing alliance. Mr Schröder and Ms Merkel refused to comment on suggestions that they might be considering a plan to share the Chancellor's post on a two-year rotation basis, which could suit both parties.
After the hour-long talks, Ms Merkel said she would not back down on her claim to the Chancellor's job. "As far as this is concerned, there are certain insights which must be left to mature within the Social Democratic Party," she said.
Franz Muentefering, the Social Democrat leader, reiterated his party's commitment to seeing Mr Schröder remain Chancellor. "Everyone is well aware that all parties bear a great responsibility to form a stable government as quickly as possible," he said. "We are a long way from negotiations, but we have opened the perspective for concrete talks."
Mr Schröder, asked whether he was considering the possibility of sharing the Chancellor's post with Ms Merkel - technically feasible under parliamentary rules - said he had nothing to add to his party leader's statement. Ms Merkel refused to be drawn on the issue.
The talks offered a glimpse of a possible breakthrough in the political impasse that has paralysed the country since the general election. The result, which gave Ms Merkel's party a mere 0.9 percentage point lead over Mr Schröder's Social Democrats, left no party in a position to form a government with its preferred political allies.
The first opinion poll since the election showed that a majority of Germans favoured Ms Merkel as future German Chancellor, reversing the pre-election trend which backed Mr Schröder for the post. Several observers had predicted that initial coalition talks between the two rivals would end in deadlock, so yesterday's outcome came as a surprise. Both sides agreed to resume discussions next week.
But analysts remain deeply sceptical about the viability of a grand coalition. They say an alliance between parties with fundamentally different political viewpoints would produce a lame duck government incapable of introducing the economic reforms Germany needs.
The last time Germany was ruled by a grand coalition, in the 1960s, the government merely served as a transitional arrangement which eventually led to the election of a Social Democrat administration after years of conservative rule.
Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats are to begin sounding out the Green party today over their other option, the possibility of forming a so-called "Jamaica coalition" of conservatives, liberal Free Democrats and Greens.
The liberals appeared to have dropped much of their initial opposition to the idea and said they were prepared to let Ms Merkel's party do the initial bargaining for them. But the Greens remained divided on the issue.
The radical Left Party appeared to have dropped its outright opposition to backing Mr Schröder's Social Democrats in government. Oskar Lafontaine, the former left-wing finance minister, joined other Left Party MPs yesterday in saying he considered a possible arrangement with the SPD "an exciting constellation". Mr Schröder has ruled out any alliance with the Left Party.
Germany inched a fraction closer to ending its political stalemate after Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his conservative rival Angela Merkel agreed to continue talks on forming a grand coalition government after last Sunday's inconclusive general election.
But in their first discussions since the election, both leaders were adamant they would not give up their claims to the Chancellor's job in a possible governing alliance. Mr Schröder and Ms Merkel refused to comment on suggestions that they might be considering a plan to share the Chancellor's post on a two-year rotation basis, which could suit both parties.
After the hour-long talks, Ms Merkel said she would not back down on her claim to the Chancellor's job. "As far as this is concerned, there are certain insights which must be left to mature within the Social Democratic Party," she said.
Franz Muentefering, the Social Democrat leader, reiterated his party's commitment to seeing Mr Schröder remain Chancellor. "Everyone is well aware that all parties bear a great responsibility to form a stable government as quickly as possible," he said. "We are a long way from negotiations, but we have opened the perspective for concrete talks."
Mr Schröder, asked whether he was considering the possibility of sharing the Chancellor's post with Ms Merkel - technically feasible under parliamentary rules - said he had nothing to add to his party leader's statement. Ms Merkel refused to be drawn on the issue.
The talks offered a glimpse of a possible breakthrough in the political impasse that has paralysed the country since the general election. The result, which gave Ms Merkel's party a mere 0.9 percentage point lead over Mr Schröder's Social Democrats, left no party in a position to form a government with its preferred political allies.
The first opinion poll since the election showed that a majority of Germans favoured Ms Merkel as future German Chancellor, reversing the pre-election trend which backed Mr Schröder for the post. Several observers had predicted that initial coalition talks between the two rivals would end in deadlock, so yesterday's outcome came as a surprise. Both sides agreed to resume discussions next week.
But analysts remain deeply sceptical about the viability of a grand coalition. They say an alliance between parties with fundamentally different political viewpoints would produce a lame duck government incapable of introducing the economic reforms Germany needs.
The last time Germany was ruled by a grand coalition, in the 1960s, the government merely served as a transitional arrangement which eventually led to the election of a Social Democrat administration after years of conservative rule.
Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats are to begin sounding out the Green party today over their other option, the possibility of forming a so-called "Jamaica coalition" of conservatives, liberal Free Democrats and Greens.
The liberals appeared to have dropped much of their initial opposition to the idea and said they were prepared to let Ms Merkel's party do the initial bargaining for them. But the Greens remained divided on the issue.
The radical Left Party appeared to have dropped its outright opposition to backing Mr Schröder's Social Democrats in government. Oskar Lafontaine, the former left-wing finance minister, joined other Left Party MPs yesterday in saying he considered a possible arrangement with the SPD "an exciting constellation". Mr Schröder has ruled out any alliance with the Left Party.
Kick out Schroder Nazi and put in a Freedom Fighter...
The first opinion poll since the election showed that a majority of Germans favoured Ms Merkel as future German Chancellor
Someone needs to tell head that coups are not exceptable in Western Democracies....Schroder has ridden the blood of dead US soldiers and burning the US flag as far as it could take him...even that isn't enough to save him from the worst economic period and unemployment crisis in Germany's postwar history...PSST...it's the Socialism that's ing you up.
Hopefully the rest of Germany will take note that their economy jumped at the prospect of Schroeder getting ousted and crashed at the failure of the Germans to do so.
What gets me is that these tools are stabbing us in the back trying to prove they are a counterbalance to us...
These motherfuuckers are going to be doing good to be a counter balance to Asia and South America if this keeps up. Not that I give a anymore...Actually...I like Asia better anyway.
After WWII...
Leage of nations signed agreement "solve all future problems with peace"..
We stalled to enter wwII............ on an island of safe.. sound.. and anti war
peace...
Meanwhile on the other side of the planet..
HITLER was like trying to make nukes. .making jet's.. rockets. and some bad ass Panzers... oh.. he also killed like millions of Jews and Russians...
BUT BACK AT HOME..
hey.. no Cindy Sheehan.. no Al Gore.. no Michale moore and no WWII..
HEy pass the drinks and the bar-b-que..... while Europe buried in dead bodies
and rivers of blood...
Yea.. that peace was worth it to wait for WWII to get in late...
WINNING THE PEACE before WWII was great... if we went to war early we could of gone in before France fell and NOT A SINGLE soldier would of died in Normandy or any French beach... and maybe we could of saved millions of Jews.. but.. yea our llittle peace is more important..
LET"S DO IT AGAIN... no war is good let Saddam build up stuff ...
Yea.. that's the smart thing.. Bush is wrong.. Schroder is right..
Let's all follow Schroder and end all fighting on earth.. .for peach..
Who cares what the Arabs are doing ignore them...
"coups"
what coups? in Germany? that election was more democratic and peaceful than ANY election ever will be in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The photo-finish between left and right in Germany is EXACTLY like the photo-finish between Dems and Repubs in 2000, in FL. The "Repub coup #1" there was that Jeb didn't quite cheat/disenfranchise/etc enough Dems to win outright. The coup #2 was that Gore won the popular vote easily, +600K votes, but lost the electoral election.
Because the German election directly elects the Chancellor, it is MORE representative and democratic than the US election which gets distorted by the anachronistic, anomalous Electoral College.
Shroeder US soldier blood? (he's killed US soldiers?) flag burning? political dissent is legal, except when it's against whott's side, then it's treason and sedition.
Germany is stabbing US in back ? how? By correctly not supporting the Repub's Iraq war? Germany and France have been proven RIGHT for not supporting the Iraq war, while the Repubs were LYING and have been proven WRONG.
If you want to give German polls weight as preferrring the CDU, then you MUST ALSO give current US polls weight as they have turned irrevocably, irretrievably against shrub/ head, Repubs, and the Iraq war.
I wasn't attacking the election...I was attacking Schroeder.
Crap. Either prove it or STFU.The photo-finish between left and right in Germany is EXACTLY like the photo-finish between Dems and Repubs in 2000, in FL. The "Repub coup #1" there was that Jeb didn't quite cheat/disenfranchise/etc enough Dems to win outright.
That's the US election system and it has been for centuries...You don't respect this country that part is obvious...but you should at least respect it's system of governance. And hey...if not for another President that lost the popular vote(that would be John Quincy Adams, not Lincoln), there might still be slavery in this country.The coup #2 was that Gore won the popular vote easily, +600K votes, but lost the electoral election.
It most certainly does not elect the Chacellor...or aren't you paying attention?Because the German election directly elects the Chancellor, it is MORE representative and democratic than the US election which gets distorted by the anachronistic, anomalous Electoral College.
Not that I was attacking their election system anyway...
Only Shcroeders refusal to give up the Chancellorship AFTER losing the election! Actually...I won't even go that far...I am attacking his flat our refusal to acknowledge Merkel's legitimate claim to be the first to build a coalition...and there is nothing to allow for that in German election law. And not only that...attacking a long held party partnership in an attempt to rewrite German election law to stay in Power.
You need to cut down on the Euro ...
Shroeder US soldier blood? (he's killed US soldiers?) flag burning? political dissent is legal, except when it's against whott's side, then it's treason and sedition.
Schroeders campaign poster:
I know...I don't expect you to be bothered by that...you aren't an American.
Um...Germany and France have been ing nailed for getting subsidized Oil illegally in the OFF program.Germany is stabbing US in back ? how? By correctly not supporting the Repub's Iraq war? Germany and France have been proven RIGHT for not supporting the Iraq war, while the Repubs were LYING and have been proven WRONG.
I don't put a lot of stock in polls unless they are incredibly one sided...I think it's fair to say many Americans are not happy with the way W is running the country and the War...that doesn't mean they'd elect a Democrat and want to cut and run though...It doesn't even mean they wouldn't vote for W again...If you want to give German polls weight as preferrring the CDU, then you MUST ALSO give current US polls weight as they have turned irrevocably, irretrievably against shrub/ head, Repubs, and the Iraq war.
Whereas this poll seems to indicate that Schroeder wouldn't win it again...oh wait...he didn't....too bad he isn't willing to give up the Chancellorship, or even acknowledge Merkel's at least partial claim to it right now...
I don't wish to participate in this debate other than to say Vashner's posts are like T Park and Ducks had a child and registered a screen name for it. Seriously Vashner, are you capable of putting together a coherent post?
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