Schroeder Loses Vote Of Confidence

[John Uskglass]

Oh Yes!

SDP is dead for a decade, maybe more. Genius. Great day for ALL of Germany. Schroeder will be the first of the gang to die, with this charming woman (Merkel) will inevitably hang the P.M, leading me to ask the obvious question: how soon is now?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/01/schroeder.vote/index.html

Schroeder loses confidence vote

Friday, July 1, 2005; Posted: 7:08 a.m. EDT (11:08 GMT)

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder lost a confidence vote in parliament Friday, opening the door for possible new elections.

The confidence motion garnered 151 votes, short of the 301 votes needed as members of Schroeder's own Social Democrat party obeyed his request to abstain.

President Horst Koehler now has 21 days to decide whether to accept the result and call an election, which would probably be held September 18.

"Without a new mandate my political program cannot be carried forward," Schroeder told a parliamentary debate on Friday.

He is trailing badly in the polls and has suffered a series of defeats in local elections.

A chancellor, Schroeder said, "needs a constant and reliable basis for his policies." He told the parliamentary debate he would seek a mandate "to continue what has been begun."

Angela Merkel, head of the conservative Christian Democrats, took the podium and said Schroeder's coalition could "no longer govern."

She said her party welcomed the chance for new elections.

If Merkel's party wins and can form a government, she would become Germany's first female chancellor.

Schroeder called for early elections after his party lost a crucial regional election on May 22. A national poll was not due until 2006.

He has tried to spur the sluggish economy and reduce unemployment by trimming costs to business, but the moves have met resistance within his party.

He told the Bundestag on Monday that he would be seeking the vote of confidence.

New elections are not certain to go ahead, however. President Hoerst Koehler refuse to dissolve the Bundestag on the grounds that the vote has been manipulated.

The German constitution grants the president that power to ensure that parliaments are not dissolved early by chancellors merely seeking to secure re-election, something which happened often in the Weimar and early Nazi period.

If Koehler rejects the vote, Schroeder would still have the option of resigning, however he has indicated he would not do that.

If Koehler dissolves the parliament, a new national ballot would have to be held within 60 days.

A recent poll found 71 percent of Germans favored an early election, with 24 percent opposed.

Schroeder last called a vote of confidence in November 2001, on the issue of sending German troops to Afghanistan.

 

[Per]

I know from the movies that all it takes to topple a chancellor is one senator moving for a vote of no confidence. And later on, all it takes to declare martial law is again just manipulating a single senator into proposing this.

 

[Big T]

/offtopic

CCR, I know there is the dyslexia thing and all, but how do you manage to misspell "looses" when the article you are quoting spells "loses" correctly?

In fact, why do so many Yanks spell "lose" with two "o"s?

 

[Per]

Why do they confuse "lie" and "lay"? Why do they confuse "broach" and "brooch"? Why do they write "alot", "everytime" and "anymore"? Why do...

These are eternal questions.

 

[Dapper Dan Man]

Why is a yellow raincoat called a mackintosh in the UK? Why is Christmas called Crimbo? Also, my favorite word 'invigilator'. Sounds like a B movie superhero.

"Look out, here comes the Invigilator!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_English_words_not_used_in_American_English

 

[snow666]

I am a Swede currently living in Germany, I have only lived here for 6 months which means that I still do not have full grasp of the German language. However, I have followed this vote as good as I have been able. You do know that Schröder himself called the vote? He wanted to lose it so that Germany can have new elections in the fall. Thus he told all his party members to put down their votes and lost otherwise, because he have a small majority he would have won. All according to plan so far. What is absurd is that Schröder will go to the new elections, begging for renewed confidence, less than a couple of months after he has lost a confidence vote. Many Germans, including the president, are quite upset by this manipulation though. This means that the president might not accept Schröder's resignation. What will happen in this case, nobody knows, not even Schröder, because they do not have a reserve plan! Many papers in Germany do think that Schröder pulled this trick because of political vain. He's politics have been highly questioned even by his own, so no he wants to go to history as a martyr

 

[Malky]

I know from the movies that all it takes to topple a chancellor is one senator moving for a vote of no confidence. And later on, all it takes to declare martial law is again just manipulating a single senator into proposing this.

Shhhhh.....you'll ruin the magic.

 

[Briosafreak]

You do know that Schröder himself called the vote? He wanted to lose it so that Germany can have new elections in the fall.

Yep, that`s what happened.

 

[Brother None]

Yep, that`s what happened.

Yes. It's the same as Blair's early written-out elections, 'cept that the German constitution doesn't provide for that, so he had to use this trick

The original plan was fairly simple from what I could tell. The CDU was a internally divided party full of strife, he asumed they would not be able to fix these problems before the elections and a party that could not in due time present a proper leader would almost certainly lose.

He didn't count on Merkel and his plan had gone way too far by the time she popped up, as the article says, he had no plan B. Good thing, too, it's about time he pisses off, too bad the only viable alternative for the Germans against a neo-liberal that's ruining the country is a worse neo-liberal.

SDP is dead for a decade, maybe more. Genius. Great day for ALL of Germany. Schroeder will be the first of the gang to die, with this charming woman (Merkel) will inevitably hang the P.M, leading me to ask the obvious question: how soon is now?

I'm always surprised at how little you know about the German situation but how much you blabber about it. What do you do, read half of the article and draw your conclusions from it? Try and grasp the situation before saying anything, you were already humiliated by a bunch of Germans on this topic before.

 

[John Uskglass]

I'm always surprised at how little you know about the German situation but how much you blabber about it. What do you do, read half of the article and draw your conclusions from it? Try and grasp the situation before saying anything, you were already humiliated by a bunch of Germans on this topic before.

Firstly, I was'nt humiliated.
Secondly, this post's only point was Morrissey referances.
Thirdly, The SPD is clearly in a similar position to Labour in the early 80's, thus the CDP will win this election and, God willing, the next one.

 

[Wooz]

*waits for reference to the Parthians, Armenians and a Kubrick movie that shoud prove the whole argument, in some obscure manner*

 

[John Uskglass]

You forgot Byzantines Wooz.

 

[Big T]

Why is a yellow raincoat called a mackintosh in the UK?

Because there used to be (and perhaps still is, in some form) a company called "Mackintosh" that were well known for making raincoats and the brand name became generic. Same as the reason why many Brits call "Vacuuming" "Hoovering". Or how many people call any cola drink "Coke".

Why is Christmas called Crimbo?

Because we have a tradition of making informal variants of any word over about six letters long. Where the "B" came from is anybody's guess.

Also, my favorite word 'invigilator'.

Up until you typed that word, I had never seen or heard it. Same goes for "Belisha Beacon", "bimble ", "dene", "double X", "ginger group", "merrythought" and "orientate".

Also, the list is fairly inaccurate at times, for instance: "[to] throw a wobbly " should be "[to] throw a wobbler".

Musing upon this, perhaps off at a slight tangent, I have realised that Americans have very little slang, at least when compared to the British. And nearly all of what you do have consists of using a word completely out of context to mean "good" (see: awesome, bad, cool, crazy, fresh, insane, sick, sweet).

Uh, what were we talking about?
Something about Germans?

 

[Member of Khans]

You forgot Byzantines Wooz.

The Byzantines were cool.

Anyway, everything has been said. Schröder intended to lose the vote.
Even though this whole thing seemed more and more like a ridiculous farce over the last days, it was a quite clever move of Schröder. Remember: A conservative government in North Rhine-Westphalia after 39 of Social Democracy... and nobody talked about it on that evening. The whole press mentioned Rüttgers, but printed headlines about the Question of Confidence and the next federal elections held earlier. He didn't give the CDU some time to celebrate it's victory.
And now we'll have a Bundestag election which is orientated on persons - which can only be positive for Schröder. You only have to look at the polls. People don't like the SPD, for sure, but almost nobody wants Merkel for Chancellor. Schröder is still the most favoured candidate (never mind Fischer).

 

[Per]

CCR comes up with all his arguments by staring intently at the tribe selection screen in Civ 3?

 

[John Uskglass]

Plese MoK. German elections are not about individual leaders like American elections, but about parties, and people hate the SPD, rightly so. Stop trying to weasle around the obivous; Merkel is the next Chancellor and the first female ruler of Germany sense a Byzantine Emperesss 1200 years ago.

Schroder has no more bunnies to pull out of his hat, Anti-Americanism will now get him nowhere.

 

[Wooz]

See? I knew it. Somehow, I was certain it all had to do with Byzantines and <s>Pu238</s> anti-Americanism.

 

[John Uskglass]

Schroder won the last election because of Turks and Anti-Americans; it was not based on his skill as a politician or as the head of a great nation.

Now, with both of his distractions useless against the tide of German anger at the state of their nation, the victory of the CDP is inevitable.

 

[Member of Khans]

Plese MoK. German elections are not about individual leaders like American elections, but about parties, and people hate the SPD, rightly so. Stop trying to weasle around the obivous; Merkel is the next Chancellor and the first female ruler of Germany sense a Byzantine Emperesss 1200 years ago.

I never denied that. Of course the Christian Democrats will win the election. All I said was that announcing to ask for a vote of confidence immediately after losing the NRW elections was a clever move of Schröder. Unfortunately there are only two constitutional ways for a Chancellor to bring new elections about: Else he asks the Bundestag for it's confidence and lose the vote, or he abdicates.
An abdication would have been a Dunkirk in this situation. It hasn't gone this far yet.
What else Schröder could have done? He can not govern against the Bundesrat and the conservative opposition on the one, and the labour unions and the left wing of his own party on the other side.

Schroder won the last election because of Turks and Anti-Americans; it was not based on his skill as a politician or as the head of a great nation.

Because of Germans with Turkish ancestors and pacifists, my dear.
EDIT: Okay... on second thought: You're right with the Anti-Americans.

 

[Brother None]

Firstly, I was'nt humiliated.

Yes, yes you were.

Thirdly, The SPD is clearly in a similar position to Labour in the early 80's, thus the CDP will win this election and, God willing, the next one.

Oh, of course, it's EXACTLY the same as Labour in the 80's! What's next for your political insight, it's EXACTLY the same as the Roman Empire in the 5th century? I laugh at your lack of political understanding.