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Schroeder's Party Loses State Elections

Posted on: Sunday, 21 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's party suffered a bitter defeat Sunday in state elections that focused on Germany's stagnating economy, officials results showed.

Gov. Edmund Stoiber's Christian Social Union won 60.7-percent of the vote in Bavaria, according to the results. Schroeder's Social Democrats had 19.6 percent - their worst showing in the state since World War II.

Stoiber, who narrowly lost to Schroeder in national elections last year, called the result "an absolute vote of no-confidence" in the federal government. He did not say whether he would use the boost to challenge Schroeder again in three years.

The Christian Social Union has governed the prosperous southern state for more than 40 years, and was widely expected to win the vote. But the huge margin reflected Germans' discontent with the government's reform plans and with Schroeder's overall handling of an economy that is stagnating for a third straight year.

"The message is: We must take the successful Bavarian model to the rest of the country," Stoiber told cheering supporters Sunday night in Munich. The Social Democrats previous worst showing was 26 percent in 1990.

Stoiber criticized Schroeder during the campaign for Germany's near-zero growth and high unemployment.

The Bavarian ballot was the third defeat for Schroeder's party in state elections this year, following losses in Hesse and Lower Saxony that the chancellor acknowledged were a rebuke for his government's performance on economic and labor reforms.

"I knew that the task would be difficult. I did not expect such a defeat," said the Social Democrat party leader in Bavaria, Franz Maget. "We are victims of a federal political discussion that we did not succeed in countering."

The Christian Social Union's showing was up from 53 percent in the last ballot in 1998 and within a hair's breadth of its best-ever result: 62.1 percent in 1974.

The party's reputation is rooted in Bavaria's economic success since World War II, which Stoiber extended during the past 10 years by attracting software and biotech firms.

Social Democratic leaders blamed their party's poor showing largely on unpopular plans to trim Germany's cherished social programs.

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