GERMANY: VOTING STARTS IN HAMBURG IN WHAT IS CONSIDERED AN IMPORTANT TEST OF VOTERS SENTIMENT FOR THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

Record ID: 584924

  • Title: GERMANY: VOTING STARTS IN HAMBURG IN WHAT IS CONSIDERED AN IMPORTANT TEST OF VOTERS SENTIMENT FOR THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS
  • Date: 23rd September 2001
  • Summary: (W4) HAMBURG, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 23, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV EXTERIOR OF POLLING STATION; CU SIGN (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. VARIOUS OF GENERAL VOTING (6 SHOTS) 0.38 3. VARIOUS OF CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT (CDU) CANDIDATE OLE VON BEUST CASTING BALLOT (3 SHOTS) 0.55 4. CUS OF VOTING LIST (3 SHOTS) 1.10 5. SV OLE VON BEUST VOTING 1.21 6. SCU SOUNDBITE (German) CDU CANDIDATE OLE VON BEUST SAYING: "There will be a change of government. I am sure that the red-green coalition will not receive a majority. I do not know what the exact constellation will be - after all, I am not a prophet. However, I am sure that red-green will lose their majority in Hamburg this evening." 1.34 7. TRACK VON BEUST WALKING AWAY 1.47 8. MV SOCIAL DEMOCRAT (SPD) CANDIDATE ORTWIN RUNDE ARRIVING TO VOTE 1.52 9. VARIOUS OF RUNDE CASTING BALLOT/ MEDIA (6 SHOTS) 2.39 10. SV SOUNDBITE (German) SPD CANDIDATE ORTWIN RUNDE SAYING: "We will have to wait. I slept well and I did not dream about the elections."; SV MEDIA (2 SHOTS) 2.52 11. MV RUNDE POSES FOR THE PRESS WITH HIS WIFE OUTSIDE POLLING STATION; SCU RUNDE; MV HE WALKS AWAY (3 SHOTS) 3.07 12. VARIOUS OF GREENS CANDIDATE KRISTA SAGER CASTING BALLOT (7 SHOTS) 3.41 13. SCU SOUNDBITE (German) GREENS CANDIDATE KRISTA SAGER SAYING: "I would like that the Greens reach a double-didget result so that the red-green coalition can continue its work." 3.50 14. SLV SAGER WITH JOURNALISTS 3.59 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HAMBURG, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA5HL8ZDUEIWVAL37I4EV0CMX0F
  • Story Text: Voters have begun casting ballots in the northern
    German city-state of Hamburg in what is being considered an
    important test of voter sentiment for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's
    Social Democrats one year before the federal ballot.



    Polling stations opened in Hamburg on Sunday
    (September 23) at 8 a.m. (06:00 GMT) under gray skies and
    scattered rain.

    Schroeder's Social Democrats have ruled the left-wing
    bastion for the last 44 years.

    But they are now are locked in a tight race against a
    conservative coalition that turned the campaign into a
    referendum on crime in the country's second-largest city.

    First projections are due after polls close at 6 p.m.

    (1600 GMT). The first official results are due by 11 p.m.

    (0100 GMT).

    The stunning revelation that three guerrillas on
    aeroplanes that deliberately crashed into U.S. targets this
    month had studied for years at Hamburgs Technical University
    exacerbated that angst and added an element of uncertainty to
    the race.

    Before the deadly attack, pollsters had predicted that
    Schroeder's SPD and their Green allies were heading for defeat
    in Hamburg, a prosperous town of 1.7 million renown for its
    red-light district, because of local anger at the rise in
    crime.

    But Schroeder's widely praised handling of the aftermath
    of the attacks on Germanys U.S. ally, which has revived fears
    of
    violence in a nation scarred by World War Two, has helped the
    SPD. Pollsters now say the Hamburg vote is too close to call.

    Recent polls projected the SPD to win 36 percent after its
    36.2 percent in 1997 but up from 34 percent forecast two weeks
    ago. The Greens are seen on 11 percent, down from 13.9
    percent.

    On the other side, the Christian Democrats (CDU) are seen
    at 28 percent, down from 30.7 percent in 1997. Maverick judge
    Ronald Schill is expected to take 15 percent for his new Law
    and Order party. The Free Democrats (FDP) are seen at five
    percent.

    Those figures put both rival coalitions on 47 percent in
    the city of 1.7 million, whose regional government is one of
    16 states to be represented in Germanys upper house of
    parliament.

    Schroeder faces voters himself next year and is eager to
    avoid losing power in the SPD stronghold of Hamburg, held
    since 1957, for symbolic value but also for strategic reasons as
    well.

    A defeat in Hamburg could make it more difficult for his
    government to pass legislation in the Bundesrat, the upper
    houseV of parliament made up of representatives from Germanys 16
    federal states. Hamburg has three seats in the 69-seat
    chamber.

    If Schroeders SPD were also to lose in Berlin, with four
    seats, in a similar state vote next month, the opposition CDU
    would have a blocking 35-seat majority in the upper house.

    Schill has been called a dangerous demagogue who wants to
    wipe crime off the streets with heavy-handed police tactics.

    Even former SPD Chancellor Helmut Schmidt called Schill an
    incendiary. Yet Schill is viewed by a growing segment of the
    electorate as a charismatic sheriff protecting them from evil.





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