- Title: GERMANY: GERHARD SCHROEDER TAKES THE SEAT OF POWER
- Date: 27th October 1998
- Summary: BONN, GERMANY OCTOBER 27, 1998) (RTV) 1. SLV EXTERIOR PARLIAMENT BUILDING 0.05 2. SCU MEDIA / MV SPD PARLIAMENTARY FACTION MEETING (2 SHOTS) 0.15 3. MV SCHROEDER SPEAKING WITH JOURNALISTS 0.21 4. SCU GERHARD SCHROEDER SAYING: WHAT WE ARE DOING HERE IS SERIOUSLY GOVERNING A COUNTRY. IT WOULD BE SAD IF GROWN-UP MEN COULD NOT BEHAVE AS SUCH. WE (LAFONTAINE AND SCHROEDER) ARE NOT RIVALS. I UNDERSTAND THAT JOURNALISTS WOULD PREFER WRITING ABOUT POWER STRUGGLES. HOWEVER, FROM TODAY ON THESE WILL NO LONGER EXIST.(GERMAN) 0.52 5. MV MINISTERS SEATED/ SCU SCHROEDER 'S FOOT SWINGING AS HE SITS ON DESK CHATTING WITH FUTURE SPD PARLIAMENTARY HEAD PETER STRUCK / CU SCHROEDER/ SCU SCHROEDER AND STRUCK (3 SHOTS) 1.18 6. SCU SPD PARLIAMENTARY FACTION MEETING IN PROGRESS INCLUDING SCHROEDER SIGNING A BOOK/ MV MEDIA LEAVING (10 SHOTS) 2.35 7. MV SPD PARTY HEAD OSKAR LAFONTAINE ARRIVING / DOORS CLOSE 2.51 8. SLV EXTERIOR VIEW PARLIAMENT BUILDING 2.56 9. SLV INTERIOR VIEWS PARLIAMENT FOYER 3.07 10. MV ARRIVAL FUTURE ENVIRONMENT MINISTER JUERGEN TRITTIN ARRIVING 3.14 11. MV GERHARD SCHROEDER ARRIVING 3.25 12. HAS PAN INTERIOR VIEWS PARLIAMENT PLENARY 3.34 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 11th November 1998 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BONN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA7I300RAMBMI71UHN39SV362JW
- Story Text: Gerhard Schroeder, who first rattled the iron gates of
the chancellery as a young parliamentary deputy 16 years ago,
has finally taken Germany's seat of power.
Only a few friends heard Schroeder's shouts of "I want
to get in here" after a late-night drinking session in 1982.
On Tuesday (October 27), the 54-year-old Schroeder will move
into the chancellery after the new parliament votes him into
office.
The Bundestag, where his centre-left coalition has a
21-seat majority, is expected to vote Schroeder into office as
the seventh postwar chancellor at a session beginning at 1000
GMT.
At 1400 GMT, President Roman Herzog will formally name
Schroeder chancellor at a ceremony in his office.At 1500 GMT
Schroeder will take the oath of office in parliament before
parliamentary president Wolfgang Thierse.
Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) and their coalition
partners, the Greens, have 345 seats in the 669-seat
parliament.He needs 335 votes to be elected.No postwar
chancellor has ever received the maximum number of votes from
the deputies in his coalition.
"Even though he has a comfortable majority, there is
always a bit of tension until the votes are counted," said
German Radio in a commentary.
Helmut Kohl, 68, who had been Europe's longest-serving
leader, formally stepped down as chancellor on Monday.
Schroeder will be the last postwar German leader to rule
from Bonn as the capital moves to Berlin in mid-1999.
Schroeder has formed Germany's first federal government to
include the ecological Greens party, which has its roots in
the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
His 15 government ministers -- including three Greens --
will be confirmed later in the day and Schroeder will hold his
first cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening.
Heralding a "new beginning" for Germany, Schroeder has
pledged to put the fight against the country's 10 per cent
unemployment rate at the top of his agenda.
Industry groups, traditional allies of Kohl's
conservatives, have criticised the incoming government's
plans, saying they could damage the economy and put jobs at
risk.
They urged it not to reverse reforms launched by Kohl.
Schroeder's conservative rivals, who were trounced in last
month's election, accused his designated Finance Minister and
SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine of being power-hungry and a
challenge to Schroeder's authority.
"Lafontaine's strategy to grab power is gradually becoming
clear," Bavarian Christian Social Union parliamentary
spokesman Johannes Singhammer said."Soon there'll be a
co-chancellor and chief minister."
Bundesbank Vice President Juergen Stark rejected in a
speech late on Monday calls by Lafontaine and European Union
leaders for interest rate cuts and more expansionary fiscal
policy to stimulate growth and avoid global recession.
Stark said such proposals failed to recognise the roots of
Europe's persistently high unemployment.
"The recently expressed demands that the monetary policy
should loosen its reins to promote employment as well as calls
for more expansive fiscal policies are neither helpful nor
appropriate," he said.
Schroeder's incoming government has pledged to cut income
tax but scale back some tax breaks, to liberalise citizenship
laws, to seek more control of global financial markets and,
controversially, to phase out nuclear energy.
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