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Germans celebrate their reunification ... divided

Germany celebrates 15 years of reunification today as a woman who grew up in the communist East looks likely to become the country's first female chancellor.

Voters in the German city of Dresden were casting the last ballots in the inconclusive national election yesterday in what is expected to help end a bitter political power struggle.

Some 220,000 registered voters in Dresden's district 160 will decide the final make-up of the Bundestag, with three seats at stake here.

The voting here, two weeks late because of the death of a neo-Nazi candidate, has brought Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative rival Angela Merkel back on the campaign trail, though the result will not change the outcome of the national vote.

Three seats

Merkel's Christian Democrats claimed just three seats more in the Bundestag in the general election two weeks ago than Schroeder's Social Democrats, far short of a ruling majority.

The photo-finish left both Merkel and Schroeder claiming a mandate to lead the next government, which is now expected to be a so-called "grand coalition" grouping the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats.

If yesterday's election cannot tip the balance of power in parliament, it could have a psychological impact on the intense horse-trading to come before a new government is formed.

The clarity offered by the Dresden vote is expected to prompt the two parties to end the deadlock that has created political uncertainty in Europe's biggest economy as it struggles with more than 11 percent unemployment and mounting public debt.

The chancellor's insistence on a third term is seen by many as a bargaining bluff in the coalition talks, and there have been suggestions that he would bow out after the Dresden vote.

Coalition talks

But Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Franz Muentefering said in an interview yesterday that the issue of the chancellery would only be put on the table after coalition talks had begun in earnest.

"The SPD is of the opinion that it would be optimal, the best solution, if such a government were led by Gerhard Schroeder," he told Deutschlandfunk public radio.

The deputy leader of the Christian Democrats, North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Juergen Ruettgers, underscored that Schroeder was unacceptable to the conservatives as chancellor.

"It is clear that the coalition will be formed with the SPD as an equal partner but without Schroeder," he told the Berlin tabloid B.Z.

The parties have had two rounds of exploratory talks on forming a left-right grand coalition, last seen in Germany in the late 1960s.

They are to meet again on Wednesday and there has been rampant media speculation that there would be movement on the core issue of the chancellery in the wake of the Dresden vote yesterday.

The Christian Democrats can at worst only lose one seat after the Dresden election because of the complex electoral system which is a mixture of the majority and proportional systems.

also see story:
Election highlights Germany's divisions after reunification

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