UPDATED AT (4:30pm PST / 1:30am 9/23 in Germany) After a few hours of neck and neck vote counting, it appears that the Schroeder/Fischer team stays. The current projected seats in the Bundestag, from Tagesschau TV news ,are:
Social Democrats 250
Christian Democrats 247
Green 55
FDP 47
PDS 2
The biggest losers are the PDS (East German former Communists), so there will be that much less bleeding brain leftist idiocy in public office. The other big losers are the FDP, an otherwise sensible, centrist party that failed to rein in the Jew-baiting rampage of Juergen Moellemann. Their vote share rose slightly from four years ago, but fell far short of their expectations for this election. As expected, the FDP governing committee has officially asked Juergen Moellemann to resign as co-chair of the party. He will give his answer on Monday morning. I can't help but think that if they had made him toe the line back in the spring, their election performance could have been strong enough to form a governing majority with Stoiber.
There is increased speculation that Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin will also be ousted. One of the names mentioned as a replacement is Ute Vogt, state chair of the SPD in Baden-Wuerttemberg (Stuttgart's state). Vogt, in any event, is a lot younger and cuter than the frumpy Frau currently in office. And hopefully she has a better understanding of the differences between Bush and Hitler.
Be sure to check Daily Pundit today, Ralf Goergens is posting election commentary live from Germany.
Ralf also sent me this e-mail after it became clear that Schroeder was re-elected:
I'm depressed. I hope beer helps.Ralf, when are you going to get your own blog? The trans-atlantic alliance needs you! Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 22, 2002 12:50 PMAt the end of the day it was Möllemann who decided the outcome. At least the voters showed that they don't reward anti-Semitism. Schroeder also was less
successful than he expected, so anti-Americanism also doesn't seem to pay.It's pretty much decided by now. I have some small hope, though.
I agree. Ralf should start his own blog - perhaps in German, because I think his increasingly anti-American countrymen need someone talking sense in their midst.
Posted by: DanG on September 22, 2002 06:04 PMAs a German, I'd like to set one thing straight: my contrymen are pacifists first and foremost. You might call it a naive stance (I do), but there's one aspect here that shouldn't be mixed up: voters are not anti-American, they're anti-Bush. It's Bush, his administration and their policies that irks the voters.
Posted by: Chris K on September 23, 2002 12:47 AMTo sum the good things of these results:
- the PDS is toast at a federal level.
- Mölleman and his anti-semitic tactics are toast
- Däubler-Gmelin is double toast as I see it: she lost he ministry and her parlimentary seat. Godwinism doesn't pay in politics.
I won't dwell on the negative points since americankaiser did such a good job on his blog.
Posted by: Chris K on September 23, 2002 12:57 AMSorry for intruding, but I was doing a search for Ute Vogt. This site was the only response that I could access. Do any of you know if the lady in question lived in or around Lahr am Schwarzwald in 1984-85. She was a friend of my wife, but they lost touch when we returned to Canada. She would be approximately 36 to 40 yrs old. She owned 2 Love Birds. Please respond to d_dechert@hotmail.com
Posted by: Steve Dechert on May 14, 2004 08:23 PM