German election race tightens after TV debate

[Eugene]

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-09-07T120617Z_01_KWA743458_RTRUKOC_0_UK-GERMANY-ELECTION-POLL.xml

German election race tightens after TV debate
Wed Sep 7, 2005 1:06 PM BST

By James Mackenzie

BERLIN (Reuters) - German conservative challenger Angela Merkel's
opinion poll lead has shrunk since her TV debate with Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder and she may not achieve her goal of a centre-right
coalition, surveys on Wednesday showed.

A poll by research institute Forsa, carried out on September 5 and 6
immediately after Sunday's debate, showed a centre-right coalition
between Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the liberal Free
Democrats (FDP) winning a combined 48 percent of the vote, one point
less than the total of all other parties.

Together with a separate survey by pollsters Emnid, which gave
Merkel's coalition a one-point lead, it suggested the debate on
Sunday, which surveys suggested was won by Schroeder, has narrowed
the race ahead of the German election on September 18.

Victory for the conservative-led coalition, once considered a
near-certainty, could be under threat, with a "grand coalition"
between the centre-left SPD and the centre-right CDU/CSU now looking
more likely.

more...

[meganmonkey]

1. I think this sounds like good news

but I would appreciate an analysis from our German cohorts. Since we have no version of 'coalitions' here, I am not sure I grasp the implications.

Ooops, I forgot Poland :P

[nickinSTL]

2. from what I gather...

coalitions in a parliamentary system occur when no one party has enough seats to control the government.

The party with the most seats will try to form a coalition with another party which has some common interests in order to be able to form a government.

For instance, in the US, if we had such a system, the Republicans might join with the Libertarians or the Constitution Party members to form a government, whereas the Democrats might join with the Green Party members to form a government.

[1932]

3. The news immediately after the poll was "Merkel did GREAT!"

I guess viewers had a different impression than the media.

[Kellanved]

7. conservative candidate is the only job where

"being not quite as bad as expected" is considered sufficient qualification. This media has a bad case of rooting against the underdog.

[1932]

8. Not "rooting for underdog" -- they have bad case of rooting for the RWer

And a correctiong to my previous post: after the DEBATE the media said Merkely did well.

[tom_paine]

4. It must be nice living in a Free Country where people's votes are counted

Am I envious? You betcha!

[xchrom]

5. schroeder is far from perfect -- but he's a better supporter of

unions than merkel and crew would ever be.

and you certainly can't count on the conservatives to continue much focus on east germany.

[David__77]

6. I would vote for the Left Party/PDS

There's only one true progressive party in Germany, and that's the Left/PDS. Only in the east are Germans very conscious politically at present.

[Kellanved]

10. hardly

Sorry, but that's just their image.

The truth is that they're largely identical to the GDR's SED. Many people are downright afraid of them (I am not talking about West-Germans).

Their entertainment value can not be denied, but knowing their base: they are not a progressive party. Quite the contrary.

[David__77]

11. What's wrong with that?

What's to be "afraid" of? The PDS does not seek monopoly like the old SED did under Soviet tutelage. Had it not been for the Soviet influence through the Warsaw treaty, the SED--a merger party of the Communists and left Social Democrats--would have been normal progressive left party in Germany. PDS was the only party to oppose the US aggressive adventures, including against Yugoslavia, from a consistent perspective. It is also the only party that opposes the neo-liberal privatization and austerity schemes supporting by the right and the "Social" Democrats and their Green flunkeys.

[Kagemusha]

9. I wonder if the "Merkel plagiarised Reagan" talk hurt.

No, seriously. It might have.