'Germany needs a new start'
2005-07-22 12:36
Berlin - The German press breathed a sigh of relief on Friday that President Horst Koehler has paved the way to new elections, ending weeks of uncertainty and offering the promise of a fresh political start.
"Now WE have the choice!" cheered the mass-selling daily Bild, calling Koehler's decision on Thursday to dissolve parliament and call early elections on September 18 "historic."
"Now the sizing up of the parties and the competition for the best solutions for the major problems facing the country begin," Bild's editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann wrote.
The paper then listed 50 reasons to vote for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder versus 50 to vote for his conservative challenger Angela Merkel, who is tipped to become the country's first female leader.
Berlin's centre-left Tagesspiegel said Koehler's call had "spared Germany an agonising year of political standstill," but noted that the elections could still be stopped by a constitutional court challenge.
"Koehler has taken a great risk. If the constitutional court upholds a complaint against his decision, it would be a blow to his presidency from which it would hardly be able to recover," he said.
The Financial Times Deutschland, the German sister paper to the London-based broadsheet, said the waiting game following Schroeder's announcement in May that he would seek new elections and Koehler's permission on Thursday had created deep uncertainty in the country.
"Koehler's grounds for his decision were much more political than legal. Germany needs a new start, that was the message," it said.
"But he must be convinced that his decision will be upheld by the constitutional court in Karlsruhe.
"Now the second act of the face begins: Waiting for Karlsruhe," he said.
The conservative Die Welt said the new elections marked "the end of a coma" while the left-leaning Berliner Zeitung said the most important factor to consider was the clear mood of political change that had taken hold in the country since Schroeder's May speech.
"Koehler made the right decision, in accordance with the will of the broad majority in Berlin and in the electorate," he said.
The Handelsblatt business paper said Schroeder's centre-left government now seemed destined to topple as voters' anger over weak growth, high unemployment, mounting public debt and unrealistic foreign policy goals took their toll.
"Now it is about taking stock of this government," it said. "Things do not look good."
- AFP