The Hindu : Third candidate enters German poll fray

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 14, 2002

International

International

Third candidate enters German poll fray

By Batuk Gathani

BRUSSELS MAY 13. A third candidate entered the fray for the German chancellorship over the weekend with the Free Liberal Democrats nominating its chief, Westerwelle, as a candidate. The Free Democrats may be able to break the grip of the two larger parties — the centre-left Social Democrats and the centre-right Christian Democrats. The Free Democrats have decided not to sign any coalition agreement with any party after the election, unless its agenda contained significant tax reforms.

The centre-right candidate for the chancellorship, Edmund Stoiber, on Sunday picked a popular industrialist, Lothar Spaeth, to be his economics minister in this future Cabinet. Mr. Stoiber, who is ahead of the Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, in opinion polls, said Mr. Spaeth, chairman of a high-technology East German company, would assume the Economics and Labour portfolios in his Cabinet.He said: "Mr Spaeth took a struggling company (in East Germany with a depressed economy) and turned it into a high-technology pearl, providing jobs to 6,000 people.''

According to analysts, although only one-fifth of the voters live in eastern Germany, the region would decide the outcome of the September election. In 1998, East Germans had voted heavily for Mr. Schroeder after supporting Helmut Kohl in the 1990 and1994 elections, to reward him for his achievement in unifying two German nations against heavy odds.

Workers unyielding

Recent opinion polls suggest that the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder's ruling coalition of Social Democrats and Greens is unlikely to retain power in the general election scheduled on September 22.

Germany is passing through a socio-economic crisis with the first major strike in seven years by the country's largest trade union moving into its second phase.

The one-day strike organised last week by IG Metall, Germany's largest trade union with a membership of nearly 27-lakh workers, affected 85 major industrial companies.

Apart from metal and engineering workers, other sectors are likely to join the stir.

The strike moved to the Berlin-Brandenburg area today bordering two former East German states that cannot afford a disruption in production.

The IG Metall union has asked 10,000 workers in 25 firms in the area to lay down their tools for the planned one-day strike.

The standoff between unions and the industry stems from the trade unions asking for a further six-and-a-half per cent increase in wages while the employers are sticking to the four-and-a-half per cent mark.

Germany is seen losing its competitive edge as labour is now believed to be the world's most expensive.

For example, recent data shows that a skilled worker costs his employer around $25 an hour.

This is the highest in the world compared to $22 an hour in Japan, $20 in the U.S. and $16 in Britain. Many labour-intensive manufacturing companies are considering shifting operations to Asia and Eastern Europe.

If the trend persists then Germany will end up exporting more jobs than creating them for the domestic workforce. Over four million workers are presently unemployed, living off generous social security handouts.

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