Certainly I agree the point that on election night, all were claiming to be contented politicians. Also that it means a stabilisation of the system without any large radical protest vote.
>The CDU:
>National opinion polls showed them well below 30%. Now they got over 35%.
>This shows they have a very stable core to rely on. If they dont start their
>usual infighting about who is to lead them in a few month their whole
>funding scandal might be forgotten. It looks as if they are not to fall
>apart.
I wanted to ask more about the CDU. The International Herald Tribune claims that the S-H result sharpens the leadership contest within the CDU. I don't quite get that argument because Volker Ruehe admittedly has not won the Land outright, as he expected to do a few months ago, but nor did he expect Schauble to vacate the post. He has done neither well nor badly.
The IHT sketches the line up, that Ruehe is representing the more conservative wing of the CDU, and enjoying the rightist support of Stoiber and the CSU of Bavaria. Angela Merkel from the former DDR is seen as without the traditional CDU network connections, and symbolising the possibility of splitting the CDU on gender, generational and ideological lines. How serious is the argument that a strong conservative CDU is needed to undercut the possible emergence of a Haider type figure in German politics?
Or does a shift of say ten percent of the votes from the CDU to the SPD over the last four months, mean that the whole pattern of German politics is tilted a little more to the left, even if that is not really socialism?
Chris Burford
London