Germany poised for election battle
BERLIN, Germany -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder plans to hold a parliamentary confidence vote by the beginning of July, the chairman of his Social Democratic Party says, a move that would mean new elections must be held by September 18.
Schroeder on Sunday called for early national elections after his party suffered a crushing defeat in a state vote in a traditional stronghold.
Social Democratic chairman Franz Muentefering said he plans to hold a confidence vote in the lower house of parliament before it breaks for its summer recess. Its last scheduled meeting is July 1.
If parliament brings down the chancellor, President Horst Koehler has 21 days to dissolve parliament. After that, new elections must be held within 60 days.
A similar tactic was used by Schroeder's predecessor, Helmut Kohl, who forced elections in 1983 by calling a confidence vote in which his own supporters abstained.
A somber Schroeder made the announcement that he would seek early elections after voters in the large regional state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) kicked his Social Democrats (SPD) out of government after 39 years.
"SPD calls to final battle," said top-selling newspaper Bild on Monday. "The chancellor is taking a big risk. But this taking the bull by the horns will probably spare the nation 18 months of political paralysis."
In a survey conducted by ARD television on Sunday night, 46 percent of respondents said they would vote for the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and 29 percent for the SPD.
The result of the vote strengthens the hand of CDU leader Angela Merkel, who observers say stands a good chance of running against Schroeder in a bid to become Germany's first woman chancellor.
Analysts say the election call carries enormous risks for Schroeder, who has seen his personal ratings plunge as unemployment has surged to post-war highs.
Two years ago, Schroeder unveiled a package of labor market reforms known as "Agenda 2010" that sparked protests across the country. They include cuts in jobless benefits and stricter rules on means-testing for the long-term unemployed.
CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley said voters appeared to be punishing Schroeder for the welfare cutbacks.
"Schroeder is trying to push through welfare reforms to help equip the German economy to compete in a globally competitive world," he said.
"Unemployment is so high -- five million unemployed in Germany, and over a million in the state that Schroeder just lost control of. Governments know the measures that they have to take -- cutting back on an expensive welfare state, trimming unemployment pay -- the problem is they don't know how to win elections afterwards, because these reforms are unpopular.
"This is a confession of failure, and Schroeder is gambling everything on going for an early election I think he feels his authority would wane further if he held on for another year.
"It probably makes sense for him to go for an earlier election otherwise there would probably be tensions between the SPD and the Greens in the red-green coalition that runs Germany. We might see left-wing MPs peeling off. Certainly he is going to be under pressure to take his party to the left again."
Federal elections are held every four years for Germany's lower house, the Bundestag, with the next one due at the end of 2006.
Schroeder's shock announcement came after voters in NRW dealt the SPD its worst defeat since his re-election in 2002.
Preliminary results put the conservative Christian Democrats at 44.8 percent, against 37.1 percent for the SPD -- enough to win control of a region Schroeder's party has ruled since 1966.
The CDU's likely coalition partners, the liberal Free Democrats, stood at 6.2 percent, giving the two parties an absolute majority.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
