GERMANY: VOTERS IN GERMANYS MOST POPULOUS STATE NORTH RHINE WESTPHALIA ELECT NEW GOVERNMENT
Record ID:
328501
GERMANY: VOTERS IN GERMANYS MOST POPULOUS STATE NORTH RHINE WESTPHALIA ELECT NEW GOVERNMENT
- Title: GERMANY: VOTERS IN GERMANYS MOST POPULOUS STATE NORTH RHINE WESTPHALIA ELECT NEW GOVERNMENT
- Date: 10th May 2000
- Summary: DUISBURG, GERMANY (APRIL 29, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. SLV FORMER THYSSEN STEEL PLANT NOW USED AS RECREATION PARK 0.09 2. SLV WOLFGANG CLEMENT, NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIAN STATE PREMIER OF THE SPD PARTY, ARRIVING FOR SPD RALLY 0.18 3. MV/CU CLEMENT SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS (2 SHOTS) 0.33 4. WIDE SPD-SUPPORTERS APPLAUDING 0.39 5. SLV GERHARD SCHROEDER, GERMAN CHANCELLOR, AND CLEMENT, WALKING ONTO STAGE 0.52 6. MV CLEMENT, SCHROEDER AND FRANZ MUENTEFERING, SPD SECRETARY GENERAL, APPLAUDING 0.58 7. MV YOUNG PEOPLE APPLAUDING 1.03 8. SV CLEMENT ADDRESSING RALLY 1.13 9. MV SPD-SUPPORTERS APPLAUDING 1.17 10. SV SOUNDBITE (German) WOLFGANG CLEMENT, NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIAN STATE PREMIER SAYING: "(This election) is about unemployment. People want us to succeed just like our neighbouring countries have succeeded (battling unemployment)." 1.25 DUESSELDORF, GERMANY (MARCH 31, 2000) (REUTERS) 11. CU JUERGEN RUETTGERS, CDU-OPPOSITION CANDIDATE, HOLDING CONTROVERSIAL POSTCARD READING MORE EDUCATION, NOT IMMIGRATION, LATER KNOWN AS THE CHILDREN NOT INDIANS SLOGAN 1.36 OBERHAUSEN, GERMANY (APRIL 30, 2000) (REUTERS) 12. GV RUETTGERS ONTO STAGE AT CDU RALLY WITH ANGELA MERKEL, CDU PARTY LEADER 1.46 13. VARIOUS OF RUETTGERS, MERKEL (WITH FLOWERS) AND OTHERS WAVING FROM STAGE (3 SHOTS) 2.07 14. WIDE CDU SUPPORTERS APPLAUDING (2 SHOTS) 2.16 15. VARIOUS CDU SUPPORTERS SIGNING POSTCARDS MORE EDUCATION, NOT IMMIGRATION (3 SHOTS) 2.34 16. SV SOUNDBITE (German) JUERGEN RUETTGERS, CDU-OPPOSITION CANDIDATE SAYING: "North Rhine-Westphalias CDU and myself support the integration of foreigners living here, meaning we want to integrate them into German society. Our immigrant policy is not against foreigners. 2.52 17. MV RUETTGERS SIGNING HIS BOOK DINOSAURS OF DEMOCRACY 3.01 POTSDAM, GERMANY (MAY 10, 2000) (REUTERS) 18. SV SOUNDBITE (German) MANFRED GOERTEMAKER, PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY AT POTSDAM UNIVERSITY SAYING: "Ruettgers tried to repeat the same tactcis with which Roland Koch (Hesse state premier of CDU party) succeeded in Hesse: getting votes with an anti-foreigner campaign which failed. Content-wise that can only be welcome. 3.19 KALKAR, GERMANY (MAY 6, 2000) (REUTERS) 19. LV JUERGEN MOELLEMANN, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT (FDP) CANDIDATE AND FORMER GERMAN )ECONOMICS MINISTER UNDER HELMUT KOHL, LANDING AT SPORTSGROUND BY PARACHTE (2 SHOTS) 3.38 20. CU SOUNDBITE (German) JUERGEN MOELLEMANN SAYING: "A beer would not be so bad now." 3.43 REMSCHEID, GERMANY (MAY 8, 2000) (REUTERS) 21. WIDE GREENS STAND IN PEDESTRIAN ZONE 3.51 22. PAN FROM GREENS SUPPORTER TO BAERBEL HOEHN, NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIAN ENVIRONMENT MINSTER OF THE GREENS 3.57 23. SLV SPD AND CDU CAMPAIGN BILLBOARDS 4.03 24. PAN FROM CDU LOGO TO PHOTOGRAPH OF RUETTGERS 4.13 25. PAN FROM SPD LOGO TO CLEMENT PHOTOGRAPH 4.20 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 25th May 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VARIOUS, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA4DLV7Z5I6RH0V8JTMXNNQLBYO
- Story Text: Voters in Germanys most populous state will elect a
new government on Sunday in an election seen as the most
important test for Gerhard Schroeder since he became
chancellor in 1998.
North Rhine-Westphalia with almost 18 million people
borders on Belgium and the Netherlands and has been a
stronghold of the Social Democrats (SPD) for 34 years. The
left-leaning party enjoys broad support in heavily
industrialised areas, including the Rhine-Ruhr river region
with its state capital Duesseldorf.
Other cities include Cologne, Essen, Dortmund and the
former German capital Bonn.
Germanys conservative Christian Democrats once dreamed of
turning the election on Sunday in the countrys biggest state
into a career-ending debacle for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
But the battle for North Rhine-Westphalia may instead turn
out to be the Waterloo for a leading conservative politician,
Juergen Ruettgers, whose risky flirt to far-right voters has
badly backfired.
Ruettgers is likely to be the big loser with his
ill-conceived campaign against Schroeders plans to relieve an
acute labour shortage in the computer industry by issuing
U.S.-style Green Cards to foreign computer specialists.
The former technology minister under Helmut Kohl, who was
trying to copy the strategy of another CDU leader who won
election in Hesse last year by attacking government plans to
relax citizenship rules, was criticised even by his own party
for his slogan 'Kinder statt Inder' (Children not Indians)
that many viewed as racist.
Ruettgers snappy, if inflammatory, battlecry was aimed at
winning right wing votes in Germanys biggest state but it also
violated a self-imposed taboo that politicians, mindful of the
countrys 20th century crimes, refrain from critical remarks
towards foreigners.
It also has whipped up a storm of protest across the
country, frightened many of the two million foreigners living
in his state and, ironically, destroyed any chance he might
have
had of winning Sundays election.
The SPD can thank their reprieve on Ruettgers ill-advised
run to the right, a ruinous campaign finance scandal swirling
around former CDU leader and ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and a
steady improvement in the economy.
Voter surveys are now predicting an easy win for
Schroeders Social Democrats.
Opinion polls are forecasting the SPD will win 44 percent
of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia compared to 46 percent
in the last state race five years ago.
The CDU, which won 50.3 percent of the vote in the local
elections, is projected to win about 38 percent -- little
changed from the 37.7 percent the party won in 1995.
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