Herald Tribune: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany said Sunday that he wanted to hold early elections in the autumn after his Social Democrats were ousted from power in the crucial western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The surprise announcement on prime-time television was made after the opposition Christian Democrats were swept into power in North Rhine-Westphalia, ending nearly four decades of rule by the Social Democrats. |Source|CDU party leader Angela Merkel:
"If the SPD thinks there is a need for early elections, I can only say that every day that the SPD-Greens are not ruling is a good day for Germany"I couldn't agree more! (And I don't think that they will turn back the clock even further by undoing the labour market reform...).
Mahalanobis - am 2005-05-23 01:21 - Rubrik: politricks
stxx meinte am 23. May, 08:58:
It might be not a bad day for Germany if the SPD-Grüne coalition is out of power. However, the next government has a difficult job. They face high unemployment, a growing budget deficit and low economic growth. I will speak about a good time only after the new government has taken actions that will show a positive change in the economic state of Germany. Just that A continually does a bad job does not indicate that B will be better. B was voted out of the government for some reason as well.
Mahalanobis antwortete am 23. May, 19:22:
Global Minimum
The Germans should have kicked Schröder out of office after he engineered the bailout of deeply indebted builder Philipp Holzmann in 1999. When it comes to economic stupidity, nobody (even intentionally) can outperform the SPD-Greens. Methinks it's important for the general public to have rosy expectations about the future and a defeat of the SPD-Greens is a conditio sine qua non for this to happen.
NB: Leider hat eine an einer chronischen Eileiterentzündung leidende Handarbeitslehrerin mehr Charisma als Merkel und Stoiber zusammen... Bin ja gspannt, ob sie es wieder verbocken.
stxx antwortete am 23. May, 19:36:
He engineered the bailout ...
What a chart - Holzmann has made it from almost €400 a share to €0.25 within 10 years. I guess, bailout is the wrong word. Maybe he wanted to rescue the banks (that did not buy credit protection from hedge funds ...) ...
