By Bertrand Benoit in Berlin
With Thanks to FT.com
Published: January 28 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 28 2008 09:52
The party of Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, suffered a setback on Sunday after Roland Koch, the Christian Democratic state premier of Hesse, saw his vote plummet following a closely watched regional election.
Yet the Social Democratic party, junior partner to Ms Merkel’s CDU in the “grand coalition” and its main rival in Sunday’s elections, had little to cheer about after the Left party, a radical leftwing grouping, captured a higher than expected share of the vote.
The Left party’s performance will come as a disappointment to Kurt Beck, SPD chairman, who has steered his party to the left since the summer in an attempt to reverse an exodus of voters to the smaller, more radical grouping.
The final vote count gave Andrea Ypsilanti, the SPD’s candidate in Hesse, 36.7 per cent of the votes.
The CDU scored 36.8 per cent, off 12 points from the last election. Both ended with 42 seats in the 110-seat parliament, leaving the outcome of the ballot open.
The Left party, an alliance of ex-Social Democrats and former communists from eastern Germany, scored 7.1 per cent in Lower Saxony and 5.1 per cent in Hesse, just above the 5 per cent threshold needed to enter both regional parliaments
This marks the first breakthrough in large western states for the grouping hitherto confined to the former East Germany and small city-states. It also cements the party’s presence in the political mainstream.
With the Left party in the Hesse parliament, neither the SPD nor CDU can muster a ruling majority with their traditional partners. This could lead to the formation of a coalition similar to Ms Merkel’s alliance at the national level.
The Left party’s good performance is likely to revive a debate in the SPD on Mr Beck’s strategy – and could deepen the divide between pro-market reformists, well represented in the government, the SPD leadership and its parliamentary group, and the party’s left wing.
Analysts expect the performance of the Left party to encourage the small group of SPD leaders, led by Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor, to call for the formation of ruling coalitions with the radical grouping at the regional level – a scenario Mr Beck has rejected.
A consolation for the CDU was the victory of Christian Wulff, the incumbent premier of Lower Saxony, who was confirmed in office with 44 per cent of the vote. Opinion polls had consistently predicted the incumbent premier’s re-election.
With Thanks to FT.com
Published: January 28 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 28 2008 09:52
The party of Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, suffered a setback on Sunday after Roland Koch, the Christian Democratic state premier of Hesse, saw his vote plummet following a closely watched regional election.
Yet the Social Democratic party, junior partner to Ms Merkel’s CDU in the “grand coalition” and its main rival in Sunday’s elections, had little to cheer about after the Left party, a radical leftwing grouping, captured a higher than expected share of the vote.
The Left party’s performance will come as a disappointment to Kurt Beck, SPD chairman, who has steered his party to the left since the summer in an attempt to reverse an exodus of voters to the smaller, more radical grouping.
The final vote count gave Andrea Ypsilanti, the SPD’s candidate in Hesse, 36.7 per cent of the votes.
The CDU scored 36.8 per cent, off 12 points from the last election. Both ended with 42 seats in the 110-seat parliament, leaving the outcome of the ballot open.
The Left party, an alliance of ex-Social Democrats and former communists from eastern Germany, scored 7.1 per cent in Lower Saxony and 5.1 per cent in Hesse, just above the 5 per cent threshold needed to enter both regional parliaments
This marks the first breakthrough in large western states for the grouping hitherto confined to the former East Germany and small city-states. It also cements the party’s presence in the political mainstream.
With the Left party in the Hesse parliament, neither the SPD nor CDU can muster a ruling majority with their traditional partners. This could lead to the formation of a coalition similar to Ms Merkel’s alliance at the national level.
The Left party’s good performance is likely to revive a debate in the SPD on Mr Beck’s strategy – and could deepen the divide between pro-market reformists, well represented in the government, the SPD leadership and its parliamentary group, and the party’s left wing.
Analysts expect the performance of the Left party to encourage the small group of SPD leaders, led by Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor, to call for the formation of ruling coalitions with the radical grouping at the regional level – a scenario Mr Beck has rejected.
A consolation for the CDU was the victory of Christian Wulff, the incumbent premier of Lower Saxony, who was confirmed in office with 44 per cent of the vote. Opinion polls had consistently predicted the incumbent premier’s re-election.
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