The Straits Times reports Heavy poll defeat leaves Schroeder out in the cold:
BERLIN - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has suffered a humiliating loss of authority at home after his Social Democrats (SPD) suffered their worst defeats in two state elections since 1945 as voters vented their anger at high unemployment, tax hikes and near-recession.War-weary Germany? I must have missed the dust-up!
Not even the chancellor's opposition to a possible Iraq war, which has left him isolated abroad but popular in war-weary Germany, was enough to offset public discontent over the economy four months after his re-election.
The IHT terms it, Schroeder feels pressure to relent on opposing war:
Following its stunning defeat in state elections in Germany, the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is coming under increasing pressure to relent in his adamant opposition to war with Iraq.Uh oh!
Opposition politicians who until now have been constrained by the strong anti-war sentiment in this country say they have been emboldened by the election Sunday to press the Schroeder government to end what they see as Germany's isolation on the Iraqi question and to align the country more closely with its traditional allies, the United States and Britain.
Meanwhile, as part of a nascent effort to influence German public opinion, opposition figures, accusing the government of withholding a true picture of the Iraqi threat from the public, have cited classified German intelligence information that Iraq possesses the smallpox virus and that the Saddam Hussein regime has mobile factories capable of producing chemical and biological weapons.
The German health minister, Ulla Schmidt, has recommended that Germany stockpile smallpox vaccine in order to guard against a possible terrorist attack. The recommendation, which was reported on the Web site of the German news weekly Der Spiegel over the weekend, has not been made public. A text of the full memo was provided to the New York Times by an opposition member.
In it, Schmidt denies that there is any new intelligence information, suggesting that the German government has known for some time of the Iraqi smallpox stock. But the overall recommendation made by Schmidt, a member of Schroeder's government, seems to align her with the U.S. position that a biological attack is a real possibility.
Schroeder said Monday that Sunday's election results represented "one of the most bitter defeats I have known," but he declared that the setback would have no effect on his opposition to war with Iraq.Poor baby!
"We were against military action and we remain against it now," he said.
But there was clearly a sense on the day after the vote that Schroeder was considerably weakened and even isolated. The cover on the weekly newsmagazine Speigel on Monday showed a picture of Schroeder under the caption, "The Lonely Chancellor."
