Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder handed the leadership of Germany's governing party to a trusted aide Sunday in a bid to heal party division, but he warned that he would continue efforts to trim the welfare state. Acknowledging he was "not an easy party leader," Schroeder highlighted his popular opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq but insisted he would not change his little-loved reform course in an emotional final speech as party chairman. "I did the job in truly difficult times," he said. An overwhelming 95 percent of delegates at a special conference endorsed his chosen successor, Franz Muentefering, the party's parliamentary leader and a figure closer to its core voters. Muentefering, 64, takes on the task of overcoming internal dissent, which recently has absorbed much of Schroeder's energy. "There's no question that a change of leader is always a new beginning, but this change does nothing to alter the fact that our policies are necessary and right," Schroeder said in his speech. "We will stay on our course — what has been decided will not be changed." Urging the party to "make it clearer what we have achieved," Schroeder, who has said he plans to seek a third term as chancellor in 2006, said his vehement opposition to last year's invasion of Iraq had been vindicated. "Today we can say that the policy we followed did not weaken us, it strengthened us — without destroying proven friendships and alliances," he said.
| It made him look like Chirac's dachshund... |
Schroeder became head of the center-left Social Democrats in April 1999, six months after taking power. He took the post after his leftist finance minister, Oskar Lafontaine, ditched it in a power struggle. Schroeder launched his reform drive last March as Germany's economy limped into a third year of near-zero growth. His plans, including higher health care fees and cuts to retirement and welfare benefits, met stiff resistance among leftists and his party's traditional labor union allies.
| Things seemed fine until they had to eat East Germany. If they hadn't been socialists, the indigestion would have lasted for awhile, then gone away with the help of a few antiacids. Managing economies is a dangerous thing... |
Amid persistent internal sniping, and with the party's poll ratings stuck in a slump, Schroeder announced last month that he would turn over the party leadership. "I am certain that sharing out the work will lead to more unity and, as a consequence, greater success," he said Sunday.
| "Most things work better with a divided chain of command. Don't they?" |
Muentefering himself urged party members to unite behind the government's work. "Opposition is garbage — let others do that. We want to govern," he said. "We have to be honest: the public purse is empty. So we have to say what is possible and what is not possible."
| It's a lot easier to get people on the dole that it is to get them off. |
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