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Social Democrats stay on top in Germany's biggest state |
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May 16, 2000
BERLIN, MAY 15 (AP) - Germany's biggest state returned Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats to power despite efforts by the scandal-plagued Christian Democrats to win votes by attacking government plans to import foreign workers for Germany's booming computer industry.
Preliminary final results showed the Social Democrats finishing Sunday's election in North Rhine-Westphalia with 42.8 percent of the vote, down from the 46 percent they received in the state five years ago.
The opposition Christian Democrats received 37 percent of the vote, according to ARD television, down from the 37.7 percent they last received in the western industrial state.
The leading Christian Democrat candidate, Juergen Ruettgers, sought to refocus the campaign by attacking Schroeder's plans to issue 20,000 work permits to foreigners to fill a critical labor shortage in the high-tech and software industry.
Although his "Kinder statt Inder" slogan - "children instead of Indians," implying there should be a greater focus on training German workers - was criticized by some even within his own party a borderline xenophobic, Ruettgers credited it with helping the party regain some lost ground.
"That motivated the people," he told German television. "We were able to focus on education and jobs."
Incumbent Gov. Wolfgang Clement said he would open talks Monday with his current coalition partner, the environmentalist Greens, even though they fell from third-strongest in the statehouse to fourth.
The Greens went from 10 percent in 1995 to 7.1 percent, while the pro-business Free Democrats - who didn't even clear the 5 percent hurdle to enter parliament last time - finished as the big gainers with 9.8 percent.
The so-called "red-green" coalition mirrors the one in Berlin, leading many commentators to portray the state vote as a referendum on the national government.
Both Schroeder and Clement have cast themselves as business-friendly centrists and clashed occasionally with some of the Greens' positions on issues such as energy taxes and transportation. Clement said he was "in principle" ready to talk to all parties a signal which could be interpreted as a reminder to the Greens not to overstep their bounds.
The Free Democrats, meanwhile, appeared to benefit the most from the slush fund scandal that has plagued their erstwhile coalition partners, the conservative Christian Democrats, for months.
The state election is the first since the Christian Democrats' new, untainted leader - a woman from former East Germany, Angela Merkel - took over the party last month promising a fresh start.
Yet analysts said exit polls show the scandal over off-the-books donations, secret bank accounts and possible influence peddling in the party under the stewardship of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl continued to cost the Christian Democrats votes.
Voter turnout was sharply lower. Of the state's 13 million eligible voters, 56.7 percent cast ballots, down from 64 percent in the last election. |