Germany faced the prospect of continued economic stagnation yesterday after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won Sunday's election with a reduced majority that narrowed his scope to implement painful reforms.
Schroeder's center-left government of Social Democrats and Greens got a majority of just nine over the combined opposition parties, down from 21 at the last election.
"The country remains ungovernable because it is impossible to tackle its economic problems," said Karl-Heinz Nassmacher, political scientist at Oldenburg University. "What we need is a German Margaret Thatcher but where are we going to find her?"
PHOTO: AFP
Schroeder said he would immediately start coalition talks with the resurgent Greens, who saved his government with their strong showing in the election while his Social Democrats (SPD) fell.
"Those who think that there will be large difficulties are wrong," Schroeder told reporters as he entered SPD party headquarters for a meeting of party leaders.
The SPD fell 2.4 points to 38.5 percent as voters punished it for failing to bring down unemployment in its first term. It was level with Edmund Stoiber's conservatives, who gained 3.4 points, also to 38.5 percent.
The surge by the Greens, who gained 1.9 points to 8.6 percent, rescued the so-called Red-Green coalition's majority.
Meanwhile Stoiber's prospective allies, the liberal Free Democrats, let him down by gaining just 7.4 percent, far short of their own expectations.
Red-Green secured 306 of the 603 seats in parliament, ahead of the conservatives and liberal FDP combined at 295. Including two seats won by the reform communist Party of Democratic Socialism, the SPD has a majority of nine seats over the combined opposition parties.
The election was partly so close because Germans were torn between liking Schroeder and wanting to punish him for failing to honor a promise to cut unemployment, still stuck above 4 million, where it was when he took power in 1998.
Schroeder must also move fast to repair relations with the US, damaged by his strict opposition to a US-led war on Iraq and by reports that his justice minister made comments -- which she denied -- comparing US President George W. Bush's methods to Hitler's.
Schroeder began mending ties yesterday by announcing that Herta Daeubler-Gmelin would not be in his new Cabinet. He told a news conference she had asked not to be considered.
However, he gave no sign that all would now be harmony with Germany's NATO ally, insisting on his right to differences of opinion. He said he would not change his stance on Iraq and rejected suggestions that his position had damaged transatlantic ties.
"The basis of the relationship between Germany and the United States is so secure that the fears that were played up during the election campaign are unfounded," he said.
"Between friends, there can be factual differences but they should not be personalized, particularly between close allies."
Germany will be looking to see whether Bush offers Schroeder anything more than ritual congratulations and how long it is before Schroeder gets a by-now traditional post-election invitation to the White House.
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