THANKS, W:

Merkel’s Party Claims Victory in German Elections (NICHOLAS KULISH, 9/28/09, NY Times)

Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed victory in national elections Sunday, with projections by public television stations putting her conservative party on a path to form a new center-right government and achieve Mrs. Merkel’s goal of ending the country’s “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats.

If the slim lead for her conservative Christian Democrats and the pro-business Free Democrats holds after all the ballots are tallied, Mrs. Merkel will finally have the chance to enact the kind of liberalizing economic reforms she proposed when she first ran for chancellor four years ago. [...]

The Social Democrats’ chancellor candidate, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, called the election night “a bitter defeat” for his party, which suffered the worst decline ever by a party in a German parliamentary election.

Gerhard Schroeder came out of the Iraq War about as well off as Chretien, Chirac, & Saddam.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 27, 2009 4:25 PM