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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: paret who wrote (51142)	10/10/2005 10:01:56 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 59480

Merkel to Succeed Schröder as Chancellor of Germany lib demohacks friends in europe down/out of power By JUDY DEMPSEY AND KATRIN BENNHOLD BERLIN, Oct. 10 - Conservative leader Angela Merkel was poised to become Germany's first female chancellor three weeks after a near-dead heat election that forced the two biggest parties to negotiate a power-sharing agreement, party officials said today. The agreement will end Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's seven years at the helm of the government; but it appeared to give his Social Democratic Party a majority of cabinet posts, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. The deal ends weeks of deadlock and will lead to a beginning of formal coalition talks between the two parties next Monday, the outcome of which will determine how fast and how far reforms will take place in Europe's biggest economy over the coming years. The coalition talks, aimed at reaching detailed agreement on the composition and policies of the next government, could last several weeks, with a final deadline of Nov. 12, conservative officials said. Ms. Merkel's union of Christian Democrats and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, won the most votes and, narrowly, the most seats in the Bundestag, or Parliament, in the Sept. 18 election that left both camps without a governing majority. Details of which cabinet posts would go to which party were still pending confirmation today, but officials said the Social Democrats were likely to obtain eight out of 14 ministries, including three of the most influential briefs: the foreign ministry, the finance ministry and the labor ministry. Ms. Merkel's conservatives were poised to get the economy, interior and defense ministries, among others. Aside from becoming the first female chancellor, Ms. Merkel, 51, will also be the country's first chancellor from the former communist east. The election campaign, fought against the backdrop of persistent unemployment and sluggish economic growth, was among the most bitter in post-war history. Germany's jobless toll has been stuck near the 5 million mark, sapping buying power and boosting the reluctance of voters to endorse further painful reforms to the labor market. Mr. Schröder, who called early elections after losing a key state ballot in May, staged a late comeback in the campaign and won more votes than expected. Pledging to protect Germany's welfare state against the more reformist proposals of the Christian Democrats, his party narrowed the conservatives' initial double-digit lead in opinion polls to less than two percentage points at the ballot box. This better-than-expected result has prompted many Social Democrats to demand a tough line in coalition talks with the conservatives and raised concern among economists that a joint coalition may be slow to implement reforms. It will be only the second time in Germany's post-war history that Germany's large parties on left and right will form what is known as a "grand coalition." Aside from once previous grand coalition in 1966-69, the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats traditionally rely on forming stable governments with smaller parties. The toughest negotiations in recent days have involved only four politicians: Mr. Schröder; Ms. Merkel; Franz Müntefering, the Social Democrat chairman; and Edmund Stoiber, leader of the Christian Social Union. In recent days German voters have come out strongly in favor of a grand coalition between the two major parties, with Ms. Merkel as chancellor. According to a poll carried out by the polling institute Forschungsgruppe Wahlen last week, 63 percent of respondents said they wanted a grand coalition compared to 25 percent who opposed it. When asked who they wanted to be chancellor, 47 percent opted for Ms. Merkel, an increase of 2 percent from a week earlier, and 42 percent said they wanted Mr. Schröder, a decrease of 4 percent.