Greens keep Schroeder in power
Green is today Gerhard Schroeder’s favourite colour after the environmental party kept his Social Democrats in power in Germany’s closest postwar election.
Now the chancellor will face a tougher opposition at home and the task of rebuilding ties with the United States after a campaign that angered Washington.
Schroeder secured another four years for his coalition with the small Greens party in yesterday’s general election, handing Europe’s dwindling left another boost a week after Social Democrats squeezed home in Sweden.
But he will have to tackle problems such as chronic unemployment and slow economic growth and confront strains in the country’s generous welfare state with a slender majority that opponents said will not hold.
Official results released showed the Social Democrats and Greens won a combined 47.1% of the vote for the lower house, or Bundestag. Opposition parties led by resurgent conservatives under Edmund Stoiber totalled 45.9%.
That gave the Social Democrats and Greens 306 seats in the new 603 seat parliament, compared to 295 for conservatives and the pro-business Free Democrats. Reformed communists won the other two seats.
A jubilant Schroeder appeared arm-in-arm with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of the Greens before cheering supporters in Berlin.
”We have hard times in front of us and we’re going to make it together,” Schroeder shouted.
The Greens were exuberant after their best showing in their 22 year history - 8.6%. But Fischer declined to say whether the Greens would demand another ministerial position.
”One must be modest in victory,” he said.
Chastened by his narrow defeat, conservative challenger Stoiber said Schroeder would face a reinvigorated opposition and forecast that his power base would prove brittle.
”I predict that this Schroeder government will rule for only a very short time,” Stoiber said.
Stoiber had claimed victory last night when the first exit polls revealed. But he joy was short lived.
Schroeder’s coalition has a nine-seat majority in the new parliament, down from a 21 vote advantage in his first term. The winning margin is tighter than in 1976, previously the closest race, when a Social Democrat-led government won a 10 seat majority.
Schroeder’s outspoken opposition to a military conflict with Iraq was credited with giving him a late push in a tight campaign. But it sparked a rare open spat with the United States and accusations he whipped up emotions against a vital ally for electoral gain.
Analysts expect Schroeder to adopt a softer tone after the election and he is likely to sack his justice minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin who last week compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler.
That remark caused deep offence across the US and it was reported that Washington will now block any move to make Germany a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Schroeder may have won the election, but his failure to deliver on a promise to reduce unemployment eroded support for the Social Democrats.
