{news} Fw: USGP-INT Green/SPD minority government supported by the Left Party?

[Justine McCabe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Feinstein" <mfeinstein at feinstein.org>
To: <usgp-int at gp-us.org>
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 9:06 AM
Subject: USGP-INT Green/SPD minority government supported by the Left Party?


> http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1718667,00.html
>
> Left Party Not Yet Out of the Power Game Deutsche Welle, September 23rd, 
> 2005
>  The Left Party was the only contender in the German polls who could claim 
> a full victory, winning 8.7 percent of votes in their first bid for power. 
> They may yet end up being the king-makers.
>
> Going from zero to 54 parliamentarians in the Bundestag or the lower house 
> of parliament following Sunday's general elections, Germany's Left Party 
> should be on cloud nine this week.
> The newly formed party of disgruntled Social Democrats and former 
> communists became the fourth-largest group in parliament after Sunday's 
> election.
>
> Neither the Christian Union (CDU) and their preferred coalition partners, 
> the Free Democrats, nor the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green party, 
> the current government coalition, won a majority of votes in the election.
>
> But despite their glowing results, the Left Party hasn't ended up playing 
> king-maker.
>
> Though the Left Party could make up the difference between a majority or 
> minority coalition for either constellation, all four parties have 
> rejected working with them. For its part, the leftists have said they 
> would not tolerate an SPD-Green minority government -- the only parties 
> with ideas that connect with their own.
>
> But parliamentary opposition may not be the Left Party's fate, after all.
>
> Several Left Party parliamentarians said on Wednesday that they would 
> tolerate continuation of the current coalition if the Social Democrats 
> would make changes to their agenda, despite the SPD's insistence that 
> Gerhard Schröder remain chancellor.
> Conditions for toleration
>
> Left Party parliamentarian Hüseyin-Kenan Aydin said labor and tax policies 
> would have to be adjusted. "If the SPD says we want Schröder and we accept 
> the conditions, then we'll also vote Schröder," he said. Aydin added that 
> his opinions did not differ from those of the party's leaders, Gregor Gysi 
> and Oscar Lafontaine.
>
> But the leftists' campaign manager, Bodo Ramelow, rejected the option, 
> saying that not one Left Party parliamentarian would back Schröder's 
> policies.
>
> Several further Left Party parliamentarians said they too, could imagine 
> their party tolerating an SPD-Green coalition.
>
> "A minority government is an option," Sabine Zimmermann told news Web site 
> Spiegel Online. She said that in light of Germany's high unemployment, 
> something had to be done quickly and that she couldn't comprehend that the 
> SPD ruled out any cooperation with her party. Parliamentarian Alexander 
> Ulrich said toleration depended on the SPD and Greens ruling out 
> deployment of the German army abroad.
>
> On Tuesday, Oskar Lafontaine, the Left Party's designated parliamentary 
> group leader, praised the SPD and Green party agendas and also implied 
> that his party could possibly work with them.
>
> "I could sign the Green's election manifesto as it is. It's not far from 
> the party that I currently represent," he said on German public 
> broadcaster ARD. "The SPD's revised agenda before the election had less to 
> do with the actions of the past seven years," he commented. "If one were 
> to orient oneself on the issues, there would now certainly be an exciting 
> situation."
>
> Slight shift
>
> Though neither the SPD nor the Greens have made any overtures to suggest 
> they would work with the Left Party, their seemingly determined stance 
> seems to be weakening.
>
> SPD deputy parliamentary group leader Gernot Erler (photo) stressed on 
> Thursday on InfoRadio Berlin-Brandenburg that there would not be a 
> coalition between the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left Party, but 
> that didn't mean that the 54 parliamentarians from the left were "air."
>
> And the Green's Christian Ströbele, deputy leader of his party's 
> parliamentary group, said that the leftists' rejection of a coalition with 
> the SPD and Greens was a "big mistake."
>
>
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