US-Medien erfreut über SPD-Wahldebakel
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Laut International Herald Tribune zeigt die Wahlniederlage Schröders, dass die Haltung Frankreichs und Deutschlands zum Irak-Krieg nur eine inhaltslose Hülle sei.
Wörtlich hieß es: »Nach der Maskerade das Debakel«.
Der Wahlausgang sei entscheidend dafür, dass der Widerstand, den beide Länder gegen die US-Kriegspläne zeigten, scheitert. Dies sei auch mit dem Aufruf der acht europäischen Staaten zur Unterstützung Bush's deutlich geworden.
Für die International Herald Tribune haben beide Regierungen ihren selbsternannten Führungsanspruch in Europa verloren. Die Niederlage Schröders betitelte die Gazette als 'beschämend'.
Quelle: www.jungewelt.de
Gruß,
T.
weil sie mit George in den Krieg ziehen wollen...
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Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune
Schroeder feels pressure to relent on opposing war
Richard Bernstein/NYT The New York Times
Tuesday, February 4, 2003
Opposition emboldened by outcome of 2 elections
BERLIN Following its stunning defeat in state elections in Germany, the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is coming under increasing pressure to relent in his adamant opposition to war with Iraq.
Opposition politicians who until now have been constrained by the strong anti-war sentiment in this country say they have been emboldened by the election Sunday to press the Schroeder government to end what they see as Germany's isolation on the Iraqi question and to align the country more closely with its traditional allies, the United States and Britain.
Meanwhile, as part of a nascent effort to influence German public opinion, opposition figures, accusing the government of withholding a true picture of the Iraqi threat from the public, have cited classified German intelligence information that Iraq possesses the smallpox virus and that the Saddam Hussein regime has mobile factories capable of producing chemical and biological weapons.
The German health minister, Ulla Schmidt, has recommended that Germany stockpile smallpox vaccine in order to guard against a possible terrorist attack. The recommendation, which was reported on the Web site of the German news weekly Der Spiegel over the weekend, has not been made public. A text of the full memo was provided to the New York Times by an opposition member.
In it, Schmidt denies that there is any new intelligence information, suggesting that the German government has known for some time of the Iraqi smallpox stock. But the overall recommendation made by Schmidt, a member of Schroeder's government, seems to align her with the U.S. position that a biological attack is a real possibility.
"It is to be assumed that countries such as North Korea and Iraq have access to viral strains that could present a potential threat," the memo reads. "It was stated earlier that no one would use these because of the risk of self-injury, but it is the case, given the numerous suicide bomber attacks, that there is a completely different situation."
"Therefore," the memo says, "the danger cannot be excluded that someone could infect himself to launch a suicide attack."
Schroeder said Monday that Sunday's election results represented "one of the most bitter defeats I have known," but he declared that the setback would have no effect on his opposition to war with Iraq.
"We were against military action and we remain against it now," he said.
But there was clearly a sense on the day after the vote that Schroeder was considerably weakened and even isolated. The cover on the weekly newsmagazine Speigel on Monday showed a picture of Schroeder under the caption, "The Lonely Chancellor."
"The majority of our electorate, the conservative electorate, is against any military action, so we haven't wanted to put that to the test before," Christian Schmidt, the foreign policy spokesman for the opposition Christian Social Union, said in an interview Monday. "Now we will repeat a little louder what we said before - go back to the alliance."
Many, not only opposition party members but German foreign policy experts, have been privately critical of what they have seen as Schroeder's unyielding position on Iraq, arguing that it has needlessly harmed German relations with the United States and caused divisions inside Europe.
Schroeder, who campaigned strongly against the war in his successful election campaign last September, has gone further than any European leader, saying repeatedly that Germany would not participate in a war even if the UN approved one.
While the subtlety has been lost on many here, the position Schroeder has staked out differs from that of the French, with whom Germany has seemed to be aligned. The French have left open the possibility that they would participate in a war eventually if it were approved by the Security Council.
Opposition party leaders in Germany said Monday that they would seek to further two objectives: one to have Germany adopt the French position and second to show German public opinion that Iraq is a real threat.
"The French position could smoothly switch to a position closer to the United States and Great Britain," said Schmidt, the Christian Social Union's foreign policy spokesman.
Another opposition figure, Friedbert Pflueger , a Christian Democratic Union parliamentarian from Hannover, said in an interview that the Schroeder government "tried to give the impression that it is a fantasy of George W. Bush that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. I am not willing to accept that the government gives the public a false impression."
Pflueger rejected the argument being heard here that the letter signed by eight European leaders last week that asked for unity with the United States on Iraq has furthered European divisions.
"Mr. Schroeder is personally responsible for the breakdown of European solidarity," Pflueger said, "not the eight other European countries who signed the letter of support for America. I want to make very clear that my party has a very different position on these matters than the government."
With Schroeder declaring that nothing will change in the government's position, a political battle seems to be forming in Germany. Who will win it will depend much upon public opinion, which seems, despite Sunday's election results, to be as strongly anti-war as ever.
Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune
