This Week in Germany VI

This week I’ve managed to post on Sunday again! Enjoy this week’s news from Germany.

Left Party formed from PDS, ahead of Greens in polls

BERLIN - A far-left alliance of dissatisfied Social Democrats and former East German communists rallied in Berlin Sunday with polls showing their newly-christened Left Party has overtaken the Greens in voter support. The developments coincided with an unconfirmed report that President Horst Koehler plans this coming week to dissolve the Bundestag parliament and call a general election on September 18. With just two months to go, opinion surveys showed the Left Party garnering 10 per cent of the vote, compared to just 7 per cent for the Greens, junior partners in embattled Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s fragile centre-left coalition government. That would make the Left Party the third-strongest political force in Germany, behind front-runner Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) at 43 per cent and Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD) at 27 per cent.

The German opposition leader, Angela Merkel, has said the Franco-German alliance must remain the engine of progress in the European Union. “All initiatives taken must be open to all European countries, but France and Germany must be the engine of these initiatives,” she said in Paris. Mrs Merkel is tipped to beat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in elections expected to be held in September. She was speaking after talks with French President Jacques Chirac.

Chirac, Schroeder discuss Security Council reform

PARIS - French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder held a phone conversation Tuesday about a proposal to reform the U.N. Security Council, the president’s spokesman Jerome Bonnafont said. The discussion concerned “the progress of discussions at the U.N. General Assembly on the proposal of the G4 (countries)”, Germany, Japan, Brazil and India, Bonnafont said. These four countries have introduced a proposal for a resolution that would increase the number of seats in the Security Council from 15 to 25, with six of the new seats being permanent but without the right to veto.

BERLIN - Opposition chancellor candidate Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led political bloc has continued to lose ground just two months before an expected early election in Germany, according to an opinion poll released Wednesday.The poll, drawn up by market researchers Forsa for the weekly Stern magazine, showed support for the Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian-based Christian Social Union (CSU) dropping two percentage points from last week to 44 per cent. The CDU-CSU has lost five points over the last month. Despite the decline in support for Merkel’S CDU-CSU, the Forsa poll shows the opposition maintaining a commanding lead over Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD) with the opposition’s likely coalition partner, the Free Democrats, gaining the support of seven per cent of those responding to the survey.

Steel magnate named US ambassador to Germany

WASHINGTON - A U.S. steel-industry executive, William Timken, has been nominated as U.S. ambassador to Germany, the White House said Tuesday. The 67-year-old chairman of the board of family-owned Timken Company in Canton, Ohio must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He is a large campaign contributor to U.S. President George W. Bush’s centre- right Republican Party. Timken does not speak German, much like his predecessor in Berlin, Daniel Coats, and has no previous diplomatic experience. The father of six and grandfather of seven children is the descendant of German immigrants who came to the United States in the 19th century. He studied business at Stanford and Harvard universities.

BERLIN - Michael Jackson is planning to build “a fairy-tale castle” in Germany as an overseas refuge, a spokesman for the self-styled King of Pop said Friday as guests began arriving in Berlin to celebrate Jackson’s father’s birthday. A hotel in the leafy suburbs of the German capital is hosting Joe Jackson’s 76th birthday party with Michael’s siblings Janet, LaToya and Jermaine expected to attend. The singer himself bowed out at the last minute, telling German fans he deeply regretted being unable to attend but that he would “be with you in my heart”. His spokesman, Shawn Andrews, told the newspaper Berliner Morgenpost: “Michael is a fan of Germany and has fallen in love with the city of Berlin.”