Rocked by ferocious attacks on her shadow finance minister just days before an election, German conservative leader Angela Merkel looked poised yesterday to rehabilitate a popular party heavyweight and former rival.
Merkel, who once appeared coasting towards a center-right coalition victory, has stumbled in the past 10 days as Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has turned his fire on the radical tax plans of her finance expert Paul Kirchhof.
Merkel, in an interview published yesterday, appeared to endorse a suggestion from Kirchhof that the ideal finance team in a future government would be a "tandem" arrangement with prominent conservative politician Friedrich Merz.
It was unclear exactly what role might be played by Merz, who quit as party finance spokesman and deputy leader last year after a series of heated clashes with Merkel.
Talk of a Merz comeback, four days before Sunday's election, reflected conservative nerves in the face of a late surge by Schroeder, who is bidding to repeat his dramatic comeback victory at the 2002 election.
Polls this week show Merkel still well ahead of Schroeder but short of the majority she seeks to form a coalition with her preferred partners, the liberal Free Democrats.
That could force her to team up instead with Schroeder's Social Democrats, an outcome which many Germans seem to favor.
Financial markets doubt whether such a "grand coalition" could force through radical reforms to bring down the 11.6 percent jobless rate, spur growth and cut debt.
Merkel's choice of Kirchhof, a leading academic and lawyer but a political novice, has presented Schroeder with an irresistible target for attack.
Schroeder has portrayed him as a man living on another planet, and said he would reallocate wealth from the poor to the rich by taxing bus drivers at the same rate as millionaires.
"A uniform tax rate of 25 percent means a gigantic redistribution from the bottom to the top," Schroeder told Hanover's Neue Presse newspaper.
In a series of increasingly heated exchanges, Merkel has accused the chancellor of deliberately lying about conservative policy, which would cut income and payroll taxes while raising sales tax to 18 from 16 percent.
Schroeder insisted yesterday that he will not form an alliance with the new Left Party after this weekend's German election and dismissed as "absurd" speculation over other possible coalitions.
Buoyed by polls this month that have shown his party clawing back support, Schroeder said his aim was "for the Social Democrats to be the strongest party."
Merkel still appears likely to emerge as chancellor. But recent polls have raised the possibility that an alliance of Schroeder's current coalition -- the Social Democrats and Greens -- with the Left Party, a combination of ex-communists and former Social Democrats alienated by the chancellor's welfare state reforms, could garner enough support to rule together.
Still, all three parties have dismissed the idea of forming a three-way coalition, which would face major policy and personality clashes.
"Such a coalition is completely out of the question," Schroeder said, adding that "there will no form of collaboration" with the new party.
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
‘NO INTEGRITY’: The chief judge expressed concern over how the sentence would be perceived given that military detention is believed to be easier than civilian prison A military court yesterday sentenced a New Zealand soldier to two years’ detention for attempting to spy for a foreign power. The soldier, whose name has been suppressed, admitted to attempted espionage, accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose and knowingly possessing an objectionable publication. He was ordered into military detention at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch and would be dismissed from the New Zealand Defence Force at the end of his sentence. His admission and its acceptance by the court marked the first spying conviction in New Zealand’s history. The soldier would be paid at half his previous rate until his dismissal