Schröder's coalition near collapse over leak?

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
I miss Helmut Kohl...

Nobody here does that, so you can have him.

[Adam Smith]

Originally posted by HershOstropoler
The EU (well, rather part of the EU) peacenik stance is the reaction to the US warmonger stance.

When the US argues for war, (part of) the EU argues for sanctions, which fits either your theory or mine.
But when the US argued for sanctions, (part of?) the EU argued for doing nothing, which fits my theory but not yours.

[Nevs23]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
How is Schroder's party likely to fare in a new election?

The public opinion can be influenced easily.
(Unfortunately, the German media work quite against Schröder in the moment.)

The Schröder government isn't really bad.
If the CDU was at the power, the situation would be even worse in Germany.

[Ned]

I'm sorry, but I don't think anybody answered my first question. If the Greens pull out of the government, would the Christian Democratic party have an opportunity to form a new government or must elections be called?

[Harovan]

No, if Schröder would be able to form a new coalition or decides to try it alone (without a majority), which probably wouldn't last long. Otherwise new elections would be called.

[MBD]

So what's the most likely result in the short term--

1) The SPD and Greens patch things up and stumble along a while longer,
2) A Grand Coalition government between the SPD and Christian Democrats,
3) New elections,
4) something else?

[Dinner]

So is it true that Gerhard's popularity is down to 25%? That's sad. All of his anti-American pandering and he still can't break through in the polls.

[DanielXY]

I would say 1) ... I think ...

[Harovan]

Originally posted by MBD
So what's the most likely result in the short term--

1) The SPD and Greens patch things up and stumble along a while longer,
2) A Grand Coalition government between the SPD and Christian Democrats,
3) New elections,
4) something else?

Option 1) hands down. No chance the Greens leave the coalition. They already "swallowed" bigger "toads" (a saying), like the German participation in the war in Yugoslavia and others. They are a bit miffed, but will no doubt give in in the end.

[MBD]

I agree the SPD and Greens will most likely try to continue as best they can, but this incident almost certainly increases the likelihood that new elections will be needed sooner.

It looks like the Greens are stuck with the SPD. Is there any chance they'd ever join a Christian Democratic government? And for that matter, would the Free Democrats ever join an SPD government?

[Skyjack666]

Originally posted by Tuomerehu


US Media tends to catch trends by making irrelevant news really important,
often altering the viewpoint to pro-Bush.

Wrong, genius.

[Ned]

How do you guys in Germany feel about the proposal that you and the French have dual citizenship?

[DanielXY]

IMHO the greens would earn much respect if they stepped down right now. (No loss in popularity for them so far and if they leave the coalition, Im sure they would gain a few percent in future elections).

Unfortunatly the only possibel following option is a cdu lead government... (which is not exactly in the greens interest )

[DanielXY]

@MBD both unlikly

[MBD]

Then what's to be gained by stepping down now? Even if they force a new election, and they gain a couple of percentage points in the results, their gains would probably come at the expense of the SPD, with whom they're pretty much forced to rejoin in the government, so everybody would be right back where they were.