Germans were voting in a tight race yesterday between conservative challenger Angela Merkel, who has pledged to reform the moribund economy and bring Germany closer to the US, and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has touted his country's role as a European leader and counterbalance to the US.
Merkel began the day with a good chance of becoming the country's first female chancellor. But whether a victory would give the former physicist the convincing mandate she needs to forge ahead with tax and labor market reforms remained unknown.
For some voters, her plan to patch up relations with Washington, which frayed after Schroeder's refusal to back the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, has resonated, as has her position that Turkey should not be allowed full membership in the 25-nation EU.
"A country like Turkey just doesn't belong in the European community," voter Torsten Quade, 41, said. "We're already going to let in countries like Romania and Bulgaria, and this is already too much because of how far behind they are."
But other voters said they wanted Schroeder and his Social Democrats to stay in power because of his efforts to keep the country out of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and his push for diplomacy with Iran.
"When you have a son coming of military age, this makes it even more important to vote for a government that isn't eager to go to war," said Stefan Deutscher, a 38-year-old business consultant, who voted in Berlin.
He said he blamed Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, for the high unemployment in Germany -- currently at 11.4 percent -- saying: "I dislike the CDU because they passed on a messed-up country to the current government and are now blaming them for it."
The CDU, with Helmut Kohl as its chancellor, led Germany from 1982-1998, during which the country was reunited and unemployment began to rise.
In his hometown of Hannover, Schroeder and his wife, Doris, voted as photographers and cameramen recorded the moment.
The couple walked to the polling place inside a school near their home. She was optimistic about a win by the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, noting that the good weather was an omen.
"My husband always says if the sun is happy, then the SPD has it made." Schroeder did not speak to reporters after he voted.
Merkel cast her vote in Berlin, joined by her husband, chemist Joachim Sauer. Neither spoke to reporters who trailed the pair.
If Merkel's Christian Democrats cannot win a majority with her preferred partners -- the small, pro-business Free Democrats -- she could be forced to share power in a coalition with Schroeder's Social Democrats.
The most recent poll, carried out by the Forsa institute between Monday and Friday, put support for the Christian Democrats at between 41 and 43 percent, with the Free Democrats between 7 and 8 percent. That left it very much open whether they would win a majority in parliament.
If they do, Merkel -- aided by her party's control of the upper house of parliament -- will be able to move ahead with proposals to streamline the tax system, make it easier for small companies to fire people and loosen the rigid labor market in a bid to tackle unemployment and the troublingly low rates of economic growth.
If they do not garner a majority, many think Merkel's party would have to form a "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats, probably without Schroeder, which would likely tame her plans.
also see story:
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS