Germany in a deadlock over election
Deutsche Welle
September 20, 2005
Germany's main parties will be holding separate meetings later today to discuss the aftermath of Sunday's parliamentary election, which left the country in a political deadlock. Angela Merkel, leader of the conservative Christian Democrats, will be seeking reconfirmation as parliamentary party leader as she attempts to become Germany's next chancellor. The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, won 35.2 percent of the vote, compared to 34.3 percent for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats. This means the CDU has only three more seats in parliament than the SPD. Both Merkel and Schröder have said they would not cede power in a possible grand coalition. Merkel said she planned to speak to all political parties about a coalition, except the Left Party. One of the options is an alliance between the conservatives, the liberal Free Democrats and the Greens. The Free Democrats have ruled out a coalition with the SPD and the Greens.
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'Dardanidae duri, quae uos a stirpe parentum
prima tulit tellus, eadem uos ubere laeto
accipiet reduces. Antiquam exquirite matrem:
hic domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris,
et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis.'
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
–Plato–
'Many people, I believe, wish for a society where faith, decency, pro-life convictions and national self-determination within Europe can flourish; and not be swallowed up in a dictatorial EU bureaucracy.'
–Gerry McGeough, Irish Nationalist and POW–