USE HIM:

Why Schroeder quit as SPD leader (Roland Flamini, 2/6/2004, UPI)

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder´s sudden resignation as leader of the Social Democratic Party Friday came as a surprise even to many senior SPD members. In his announcement, the chancellor said he wanted to be free of the burden of also running party affairs in order to concentrate his energies on the government´s recently launched program of economic and social reforms.

The opposition, predictably, was quick to interpret Schroeder´s latest move as a sign of desperation. Christian Democrat party leader Edmund Stoiber called on the chancellor to resign, and to make way for new elections.

But to some observers it looked like a shrewd political tactic. After a long period of indecision, of fits and starts, Schroeder may at last be coming to grips with the political reality that there is no escape from forcing the Germans to swallow some very strong medicine. By resigning as party leader, these observers say, Schroeder is sending the message that he is serious about the reforms.

If so, it is going to take all the chancellor´s reputed public relations skills to sell the targeted cutbacks in social benefits and services to a dismayed and indignant German public.

A drastic streamlining of the legendary but extremely costly social "net" that takes care of every German from birth to the grave is crucial to the country´s economic recovery. And while it is true that the German economy is showing some signs of improvement, the reforms continue to be necessary.

Schroeder´s decision came at a time when his reform program was losing steam.

If parties of the Right don't take advantage of leaders of the Left who are serious about reform--whether by conviction (Tony Blair) or out of desperation (Schroeder)--how are they ever going to change these sclerotic European welfare states?

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 6, 2004 9:08 PM