An election everybody lost
You can call Gerhardt Schroeder Der Spinmeister, I guess.
When a governing party comes in second in the popular vote and manages no better than a tie in parliamentary seats, most politicians in the Western world would consider that a defeat. But Schroeder considers it a vindication. Not since Bill Clinton in the 1992 Democratic primaries has a Western political leader crowed so loudly about being repudiated at the polls.
The consensus in Germany, oddly, is that the real loser, from a personal point of view, is Christian Democratic Union leader Angela Merkel- who seemed not long ago to be headed to a landslide victory, and blew it.
Either way, German is the real loser- and seems destined to be governed by an unstable coalition of the CDU and Schroeder's Social Democratic Party, until the whole bizarre and unnatural situation collapses of its own absurdity and a new election is held, probably within a couple of years.
It's as if the Republicans and the Democrats had decided in 2000 that in view of the closeness of the election, they would share power. You're right; it wouldn't have worked.
It won't work in Germany, either. The difference is that while under our system a president would serve a full four-year term even under such a bizarre arrangement, a parliamentary coalition could collapse at any moment- leading to a new election. Absurdity has the added bonus (or saving grace, depending on one's perspective) of instability.
My mind can't help but reflect at the mockery with which the 2000 election result in the United States was greeted by so many of our "friends" in Europe. Wer hat jetzt glucksen, meine Freunde? (Who's chuckling now, my friends?)
When a governing party comes in second in the popular vote and manages no better than a tie in parliamentary seats, most politicians in the Western world would consider that a defeat. But Schroeder considers it a vindication. Not since Bill Clinton in the 1992 Democratic primaries has a Western political leader crowed so loudly about being repudiated at the polls.
The consensus in Germany, oddly, is that the real loser, from a personal point of view, is Christian Democratic Union leader Angela Merkel- who seemed not long ago to be headed to a landslide victory, and blew it.
Either way, German is the real loser- and seems destined to be governed by an unstable coalition of the CDU and Schroeder's Social Democratic Party, until the whole bizarre and unnatural situation collapses of its own absurdity and a new election is held, probably within a couple of years.
It's as if the Republicans and the Democrats had decided in 2000 that in view of the closeness of the election, they would share power. You're right; it wouldn't have worked.
It won't work in Germany, either. The difference is that while under our system a president would serve a full four-year term even under such a bizarre arrangement, a parliamentary coalition could collapse at any moment- leading to a new election. Absurdity has the added bonus (or saving grace, depending on one's perspective) of instability.
My mind can't help but reflect at the mockery with which the 2000 election result in the United States was greeted by so many of our "friends" in Europe. Wer hat jetzt glucksen, meine Freunde? (Who's chuckling now, my friends?)
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