German election on track after parliament vote
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-01 18:44

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder achieved his goal of losing a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday to keep alive his plan for a September election showdown with conservative leader Angela Merkel.

Schroeder needed to lose the vote in the German Bundestag to pave the way for a dissolution of parliament and the early election he says he needs to win a new mandate for his unpopular economic reforms.

The 601-strong Bundestag lower house voted 296-151 against the government, with 148 abstentions.

For the election to happen, a number of hurdles still need to be cleared. German President Horst Koehler, the only person with the right to dissolve parliament, must now decide whether the confidence vote conforms with the constitution.

He has 21 days to make his view known.

A former head of the International Monetary Fund who celebrates his one year anniversary in the largely ceremonial post of president on Friday, Koehler has given few clues about which way he is leaning.

Schroeder, chancellor for the past 7 years, shocked the nation on May 22 when he announced plans to bring the federal election forward by a full year, following a stinging defeat for his party in the large German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

If the election goes ahead, he faces a daunting challenge in the face of opinion polls that put his SPD 17-21 points behind Merkel's conservatives.

Voter discontent stems from record high unemployment and government pro-market reforms that have failed to revive Europe's largest economy.

Koehler will be taking his decision on whether to dissolve parliament in the knowledge that an overwhelming majority of Germans, the country's main parties and financial markets support Schroeder's early election plan.

There is also a precedent. In 1982 former Chancellor Helmut Kohl deliberately lost a confidence vote to bolster his parliamentary majority -- a move upheld by Germany's Constitutional Court albeit with reservations.

Several small parties and members of parliament have promised to file lawsuits in protest at Schroeder's election scheme, which keeps him in the running for a third term despite the lost vote of confidence.

Germany's Constitutional Court will probably have to rule on the matter. If he endorses the election plan, Koehler runs the risk that the Court could reject his decision.

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