GERMANY: PART LEADERS ARRIVE FOR MORE TALKS ON NEW GOVERNMENT AFTER INCONCLUSIVE ELECTION

Record ID: 584817

  • Title: GERMANY: PART LEADERS ARRIVE FOR MORE TALKS ON NEW GOVERNMENT AFTER INCONCLUSIVE ELECTION
  • Date: 19th September 2005
  • Summary: (W2) BERLIN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 19, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. GERMAN CHANCELLOR GERHARD SCHROEDER ARRIVES 2. CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY (CDU) AND CANDIDATE FOR CHANCELLOR, ANGELA MERKEL, ARRIVING 3. (SOUNDBITE) (German) MERKEL SAYING: "I will speak to the party board today. We are the strongest fraction [in the parliament] and have a clear mandate for forming the government. And now we have to think about the country, the campaigning is over and that will be the main message of today. And everything else I will tell you later in the press conference." 4. VARIOUS OF MEDIA WAITING 5. EXTERIOR OF CDU HEADQUARTERS 1.25 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 4th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA3XKWUL1FCN4PJVQTE4Y8C0MJY
  • Story Text: Party leaders arrive after election.



    After an election that left Germany in question as to who is going to form the next government, the leaders of the main parties arrived for their weekly party board meetings.

    While the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder just strode by an orderly line of cameras and microphones, the press bulk around his challenger, Angela Merkel, was much bigger and much less organised. But she confirmed that she would talk to the party board on Monday (September 19). She again claimed that the CDU won the election.

    "We are the strongest fraction [in the parliament] and have a clear mandate for forming the government."
    Merkel's lead of just three parliamentary seats on Schroeder's SPD
    dismayed financial markets, who feared a stalemate blocking economic reform.

    The euro slid nearly one percent to a 7-week low against the dollar and
    Frankfurt dealers said German shares fell some 2.3 percent in pre-bourse trade.

    Easterner Merkel will have the first shot at forming a government but the ambitious tax and labour reforms she pledged on the campaign trail could be sacrificed in the political deals she would need to cut to become Germany's first woman leader.

    An exuberant Schroeder, buoyed by a better-than-expected result, vowed his Social Democrats would never enter a coalition under Merkel and told his party lieutenants to study options on Monday for a power-sharing government under his leadership.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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