July 1, 2005

NEVER TOO EARLY:

Germany heads for early elections (BBC, 7/01/05)

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has lost a confidence vote in parliament as he intended, paving the way for its dissolution and early elections.

Mr Schroeder had urged deputies to vote his government down, so he could seek a new mandate for controversial reforms.

President Horst Koehler must now decide if there are grounds to call elections a year ahead of the original schedule.

An early election is expected to hand power to the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU).

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 1, 2005 8:24 AM
Comments

> Mr Schroeder had urged deputies to vote his government down, so he could seek a new mandate

And people complain about the Electoral College.

Posted by: Bob Hawkins at July 1, 2005 9:39 AM

Mr. Schroeder must think he's Obi Wan Kenobi--"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can imagine." Actually, his competency level is more like that of the Stormtroopers...

Posted by: b at July 1, 2005 11:11 AM

I think he knew he'd lose a confidence vote, so he tried to pre-empt by saying "Please vote against me" beforehand. That way, when the vote went against him, he could say, "They didn't really disapprove of me; they just voted that way because I'd asked them to."

This strikes as something that will catch on; I'll bet in a decade everyone in parliamentary governments will be doing it.

Posted by: Tom at July 2, 2005 12:55 PM
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