President approves new elections

cctv.com 07-22-2005 08:44

In Germany, President Horst Koehler has announced that the country will go to the polls on September the 18th. The president dissolved parliament on Thursday at the request of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and set the date for the general election. Schroeder has pinned his political future on the vote, and welcomed the decision.

Schroeder sought the early election after his Social Democrats badly lost a key regional contest on May 22. The Chancellor said his party had lost its mandate to govern.

President Horst Koehler agreed, saying in a televised address he was dissolving parliament for an election that would be held on September the 18th.

The biggest challenge to the Social Democrats will come from the Christian Democratic Union led by Angela Merkel.

The CDU is ahead in the polls by 17 to 18 points, giving her a chance to become Germany's first woman chancellor.

Analysts say she would likely get along better with the Bush White House than did Schroeder, who opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Koehler said the election would be critical for Germany's future. The country has 11.3 percent unemployment and is facing a big budget deficit.

Schroeder's left-wing government was re-elected in 2002. But it has struggled to push through cuts to the employment and social welfare systems in a bid the right-wing says is needed to kickstart the sluggish economy.

Merkel has promised to create a more business-friendly environment by cutting employer contributions to unemployment insurance, transferring the costs to consumers with a higher value-added tax.

To get the new ballot, Schroeder called a no-confidence vote on July the 1st and then deliberately lost it by asking his supporters to abstain. The move was forced by the German constitution, which does not permit parliament to dissolve itself.

By law, only the president, Koehler, can decide to hold new elections.

Editor:Chen Zhuo  Source:CCTV.com