GERMANY: GERHARD SCHROEDER'S SOCIAL DEMOCRATS ENDORSE COALITION PACT WITH THE GREENS

Record ID: 588464

  • Title: GERMANY: GERHARD SCHROEDER'S SOCIAL DEMOCRATS ENDORSE COALITION PACT WITH THE GREENS
  • Date: 26th October 1998
  • Summary: BONN, GERMANY (OCTOBER 25, 1998)(RTV) 1. SLV EXTERIOR OF MARITIM HOTEL IN BONN WHERE SOCIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY (SDP) CONFERENCE WAS HELD 0.04 2. MV CHANCELLOR ELECT GERHARD SCHROEDER ARRIVING/ GETTING OUT OF CAR 0.27 3. MV SCHROEDER AND WIFE INSIDE BUILDING 0.37 4. SLV MEMBERS SEATED /SLV SCHROEDER ON STAGE (2 SHOTS) 0.47 5. MV OSKAR LAFOUNTAINE WALKING ONTO STAGE 0.54 6. SLV STAGE 0.58 7. SCU GERHARD SCHROEDER, GERMAN CHANCELLOR-ELECT, SAYING "I KNOW THAT OSKAR LAFONTAINE HAS CONTRIBUTED A GREAT DEAL TO OUR VICTORY AND I WANT TO THANK HIM FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP DURING A TIME WHEN WE ALL MADE THIS VICTORY POSSIBLE. LET THIS BE CLEAR: THIS KIND OF COOPERATION (BETWEEN SCHROEDER AND LAFONTAINE) DURING DIFFICULT TIMES IS NOT JUST A PASSING CRAZE BUT THE BASIS OF OUR VICTORY. IT WILL BE THE BASIS OF OUR SUCCESS IN THIS (FUTURE) GOVERNMENT" (GERMAN) 1.52 8. SLV LAFONTAINE/ WIDE OF SCHROEDER SPEAKING (2 SHOTS) 2.02 9. SCU GERHARD SCHROEDER SAYING "THE COALITION AGREEMENT SAYS THAT WE WANT NEW AND DIFFERENT ENERGY POLITICS. IT ALSO SAYS THAT THIS NEW AND DIFFERENT (APPROACH) SHOULD AND WILL LIVE WITHOUT THE DANGEROUS NUCLEAR ENERGY. BUT MY POINT IS THAT IT SHOULD BECOME CLEAR THAT WE NOT ONLY TRY TO GET OUT BUT HAT OUR POLITICS MARK THE BEGINNING OF A HARMLESS FORM OF ENERGY. (GERMAN) 2.46 10. HAS CONFERENCE 2.51 11. SLV EXTERIOR OF MEETING OF GREEN PARTY 2.56 12. SCU JOSCHKA FISCHER ARRIVING FOR MEETING 3.12 13. MV VARIOUS ROUND TABLE VIEWS OF GREENS (4 SHOTS) 3.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 10th November 1998 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BONN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVAA0NKOX1J5IQGZEOP3W9TPD9SC
  • Story Text: Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) endorsed a
    coalition pact with the Greens on Sunday (October 25) that
    paves the way for him to become Germany's first centre-left
    chancellor in 16 years.

    Gerhard Schroeder, promising "a new beginning", won
    formal approval from his Social Democrats on Sunday (October
    25) to form Germany's first centre-left government with the
    ecologist Greens.

    The SPD voted overwhelmingly in a show of hands at a
    special one-day congress for the coalition agreement
    negotiatied in record time with the left-wing
    environmentalists since Schroeder's election triumph over
    chancellor Helmut Kohl four weeks ago.

    Only one delegate voted against the coalition pact, and
    three abstained.

    Schroeder began his half-hour address by thanking SPD
    party president Oskar Lafontaine for his help in winning the
    September 27 general election.

    The German media have been filled with speculation of a
    power struggle between Schroeder and Lafontaine over the
    formation of a new government.

    Lafontaine was instrumental in negotiating the coalition
    which envisages a tax reform and economic measures to fight
    unemployment.

    The agreement with the Greens, a party with roots in the
    ecology and anti-NATO movements of the 1970s and 1980s, gives
    Schroeder a 21-seat majority in the Bundestag lower house of
    parliament.

    The new parliament is expected to vote Schroeder in to
    office as Germany's seventh postwar chancellor on Tuesday.

    The Greens, who will have three cabinet posts in the
    government, including Foreign Minister for chief spokesman
    Joschka Fischer, have papered over cracks between so-called
    realists and radicals.

    Schroeder, 54, says the coalition agreement bares the
    stamp of SPD policies.

    He has vowed to battle unemployment and promote social
    justice.

    And he has assured Germany's allies that his government
    stands by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and backs
    further European Union integration and expansion.


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