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Merkel Suffers Bundesrat Defeat as Opposition Rallies
December 17, 2010, 6:47 AM EST
By Patrick Donahue
(Updates with comment from opposition in sixth paragraph.)
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered the first parliamentary defeat of her second term as the opposition blocked a landmark welfare-overhaul package in the upper house, or Bundesrat.
Failure to push the legislation through marks the first time an initiative from Merkel’s government has been blocked since the coalition parties lost their majority in the upper chamber after a state election defeat in May. Lacking a majority and facing a united opposition, Merkel may now see more of her agenda knocked down in the remaining three years of her term.
“This is the first serious signal that Merkel has lost her majority in the Bundesrat,” Ulrich Deupmann, director of the Berlin-based political-advisory company Ideas.ag, said by phone. The opposition parties “are far more united than in the past.”
As Merkel pushed her plans in Brussels today to stabilize the euro, back in Berlin the opposition rallied against a law overhauling the formula by which the long-term unemployed receive welfare benefits.
The bill before the upper house had aimed to raise monthly payments by 5 euros ($6.60) to a basic amount of 364 euros plus offering additional allowances for children’s education. The opposition said that was not enough. The legislation will now be sent into mediation between the upper and lower houses, forcing the government to modify its plans to win approval.
The law “will have to be worked on and structurally overhauled,” Kurt Beck, prime minister of Rhineland Palatinate state, said in comments broadcast on N24.
State Election Snapshot
Beck, a member of the main opposition Social Democratic Party, is one of seven state premiers contesting regional elections next year that will provide the first snapshot since May of voter support for Merkel’s handling of the debt crisis ripping through the euro region.
Polls suggest her Christian Democrats might lose control of Hamburg on Feb. 20 and Baden-Wuerttemberg in March, whittling away at her Bundesrat votes making it increasingly difficult to pass legislation.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc and her Free Democratic Party coalition partner still have a majority in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. She needs 35 votes in the 69-seat Bundesrat, made up of representatives from Germany’s 16 states, to secure passage of legislation.
The Social Democrats took issue this week with Merkel’s handling of the debt crisis that spread from Greece. Former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck and former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier accused her in the Financial Times on Dec. 15 of “stumbling through.”
Greek Blame
Merkel blamed the debt turmoil in Greece after her CDU and the pro-business FDP lost to the SPD in a May election in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. That result deprived her of a Bundesrat majority.
Support for Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc held at 34 percent in a Germany-wide poll by FG Wahlen for ZDF television today. Backing for her FDP partner was also unchanged at 5 percent.
The Social Democrats had 28 percent, up 1 percentage point, and the Greens with which they governed nationally from 1998 to 2005 dropped a point to 19 percent. The anti-capitalist Left Party was unchanged with 9 percent support.
The monthly poll of 1,421 voters was conducted Dec. 14-16. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.
***
Come potete vedere, la Merkel è tutt'altro che solida sulla sua poltrona ... mi fermo qui però, altrimenti usciamo dal seminato greco.
December 17, 2010, 6:47 AM EST
By Patrick Donahue
(Updates with comment from opposition in sixth paragraph.)
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered the first parliamentary defeat of her second term as the opposition blocked a landmark welfare-overhaul package in the upper house, or Bundesrat.
Failure to push the legislation through marks the first time an initiative from Merkel’s government has been blocked since the coalition parties lost their majority in the upper chamber after a state election defeat in May. Lacking a majority and facing a united opposition, Merkel may now see more of her agenda knocked down in the remaining three years of her term.
“This is the first serious signal that Merkel has lost her majority in the Bundesrat,” Ulrich Deupmann, director of the Berlin-based political-advisory company Ideas.ag, said by phone. The opposition parties “are far more united than in the past.”
As Merkel pushed her plans in Brussels today to stabilize the euro, back in Berlin the opposition rallied against a law overhauling the formula by which the long-term unemployed receive welfare benefits.
The bill before the upper house had aimed to raise monthly payments by 5 euros ($6.60) to a basic amount of 364 euros plus offering additional allowances for children’s education. The opposition said that was not enough. The legislation will now be sent into mediation between the upper and lower houses, forcing the government to modify its plans to win approval.
The law “will have to be worked on and structurally overhauled,” Kurt Beck, prime minister of Rhineland Palatinate state, said in comments broadcast on N24.
State Election Snapshot
Beck, a member of the main opposition Social Democratic Party, is one of seven state premiers contesting regional elections next year that will provide the first snapshot since May of voter support for Merkel’s handling of the debt crisis ripping through the euro region.
Polls suggest her Christian Democrats might lose control of Hamburg on Feb. 20 and Baden-Wuerttemberg in March, whittling away at her Bundesrat votes making it increasingly difficult to pass legislation.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc and her Free Democratic Party coalition partner still have a majority in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. She needs 35 votes in the 69-seat Bundesrat, made up of representatives from Germany’s 16 states, to secure passage of legislation.
The Social Democrats took issue this week with Merkel’s handling of the debt crisis that spread from Greece. Former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck and former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier accused her in the Financial Times on Dec. 15 of “stumbling through.”
Greek Blame
Merkel blamed the debt turmoil in Greece after her CDU and the pro-business FDP lost to the SPD in a May election in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. That result deprived her of a Bundesrat majority.
Support for Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc held at 34 percent in a Germany-wide poll by FG Wahlen for ZDF television today. Backing for her FDP partner was also unchanged at 5 percent.
The Social Democrats had 28 percent, up 1 percentage point, and the Greens with which they governed nationally from 1998 to 2005 dropped a point to 19 percent. The anti-capitalist Left Party was unchanged with 9 percent support.
The monthly poll of 1,421 voters was conducted Dec. 14-16. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.
***
Come potete vedere, la Merkel è tutt'altro che solida sulla sua poltrona ... mi fermo qui però, altrimenti usciamo dal seminato greco.