RIGHTISTS?:

German rightists plan to seize day (Carter Dougherty, JUNE 3, 2005, International Herald Tribune)

With the prospect of taking power after national elections in September all but certain, Germany's center-right parties are coalescing around plans for a sweeping collection of economic changes covering health care, taxation and labor policy that would at once knock government finances into shape and improve conditions for business.

Opposition parties, keenly aware of the nearly five million jobless whose distress accelerated the political slide of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, are also looking at measures advocated by most economists to reduce the cost and risk of hiring new workers.

Angela Merkel, who was unanimously nominated Monday as the opposition candidate for Schröder's job, and an incipient center-right coalition is laying the groundwork for a campaign emphasizing the need to make painful choices on economic policies, even as it fights among itself over details.
But the overall willingness to tackle unpopular measures distinguishes this German electoral season from nearly every one in the past decade, analysts said.

It they're Rightists shouldn't it be the "political slide of [Leftist] Chancellor Gerhard Schröder"?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 3, 2005 12:00 AM