Schroeder quits as party leader

[jaichind]

There are 14 seperate elections (Land, European etc) this year in Germany.   A SPD insider predicted that if things to not change soon the SPD-Green will lose all 14 to the CDU/CSU-FDP.  SPD are now polling at 24 and CDU/CSU 48.  Schroeder is luckly that the next general election is not until 2006.  On the other hand, to have any chance in 2006 he must act to reform the German economic and pension system but to do that would anger the SPD left wing who in turn could bring down his government.  I guess Schroeder will have to pray for another Bush Middle East adventure like Iran and then he can run again on the anti-American/Bush platform.

[jaichind]

Lewis is right... at the last election Schroeder, who had been written off by the polling firms after the SPD's appalling showing in Sachsen-Anhalt and by the huge lead that the Chief Redneck of Bavaria had, came back from the dead to scrape out a narrow win.

BTW 2002 was the CDU(not including the CSU)'s 3rd worst ever result... their worst ever result was in 1949 and their second worst ever result was in 1998.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

There is no way that the SPD is going to win anything in Bavaria.
Trust me on this...

Actually SPD is qute competitive in urban Bavaria and have been slowing chipping away at the CSU lead over the years.  Of course the 2002 Federal election campaign destroyed all that as the SPD pretty much ran against Bavaria in a desperate attempt to win the election, a gamble that worked, if just barely.

[jaichind]

What is the CDU platform?  I tried their site, but there is no translation to Elglish.  Funny, I wish I would have got better grades in my German classes.

Germans dub everything, including the Simpsons and Nanny. Scary really. I think it's a major factor to lower level of English in many European countries. CDU is paternal conservatives, but I'll let Lewis do the details...

I know.  I spent some time in Germany a couple of years ago and I remember they dubbed "King of the Hill."  That pretty much took away half the humor value of show as viewers were deprived the various Texas accents.