Schroeder Govt. wobbles over troop deployment

BERLIN, NOV. 13. Germany's ruling Social Democrat-Greens coalition risked collapse today after the Chancellor, Mr. Gerhard Schroeder, threatened to resign if it did not back him in a vote to mobilise troops for the Afghan campaign.

Mr. Schroeder told a meeting of top Social Democrats yesterday that he would quit the Government if the coalition did not back a parliamentary vote on Thursday to deploy up to 3,900 German soldiers for the U.S.-led campaign against Afghanistan. Though the three-year-old coalition has been strained before, mobilisation was fast becoming its biggest test. ``Then someone else will have to do it,'' one coalition source quoted Mr. Schroeder as saying. His outburst came after it became clear that 20 of his Social Democrat deputies had not decided how they would vote, the source said.

A top member of the Greens party said Mr. Schroeder might call a rare vote of confidence in his Government. There have been only three such votes in Germany's post-war history. ``I think the Chancellor will link the question of troop mobilisation to a confidence vote,'' Mr. Oswald Metzger, the Greens' budget spokesman, told ARD television.

Mr. Metzger said there was still hope the coalition will agree. ``I never give up hope. I don't think we'll see the end of the ``Red-green'' coalition,'' he said, criticising what he called some Greens' ``Leave me out of it'' attitude to vital questions of foreign policy.

Mr. Schroeder, leader of the Social Democrats as well as Chancellor, looks certain to have to rely on promised Opposition conservative and liberal support for victory. Eight of 47 Greens deputies have said they will vote against mobilisation, enough to wipe out Mr. Schroeder's 16-seat majority. Mr. Schroeder was due to meet Greens Deputies later on Tuesday to woo their support. At least two of Mr. Schroeder's 294 Social Democrat Deputies also looked set to oppose.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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