SPHERE VS AXIS:

Fischer faces a test in inquiry on visas (Judy Dempsey, APRIL 25, 2005, International Herald Tribune)

The political future of Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, and even the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, hangs in the balance Monday, when Fischer will be questioned by a special parliamentary committee examining lax visa regulations that allowed tens of thousands of people to enter the country under dubious circumstances.

The case has generated such controversy that the opposition Christian Democrats, desperate to unseat Schröder's coalition of Social Democrats and Fischer's Greens party, succeeded in having the entire proceedings broadcast live on television. This means that Fischer, until recently Germany's most popular politician and almost beyond criticism because of his charisma and temperament, faces one of his most crucial tests since becoming a Green politician more than two decades ago.

If he is to survive and if Schröder's coalition hopes to win regional elections next month in North Rhine-Westphalia, Fischer will have to use his television appearance to salvage his reputation and rescue the government, which also faces a federal election next year.

His supporters say he will have to walk a fine line explaining how much he was responsible for ignoring the pleas for more help by the German embassies in Ukraine and the Balkans in dealing with the huge demand for visas and how such lax regulations led to a proliferation of human trafficking and an influx of illegal workers into Germany.

The opposition has gnawed away at the visa issue, convinced that if it can expose Fischer as a weak foreign minister, it will have struck at the coalition's Achilles' heel. Schröder's Social Democrats would not have won power in 1998 or 2002 without Fischer.

As Tony Blair coasts to re-election, joining fellow warmongers John Howard and George W. Bush in posting historic victories, the Axis of Weasel implodes.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 25, 2005 9:12 AM