KARLSRUHE, Germany - Germanyâs highest court removed the final hurdle on Thursday to a Sept. 18 federal election, dismissing complaints that Chancellor Gerhard Schroederâs path to an early vote was unconstitutional.The Federal Constitutional Court voted 7-1 that President Horst Koehler had been right to dissolve parliament in July and call a national election one year ahead of schedule.
Two rebel deputies in Schroederâs coalition had challenged Koehlerâs decision, arguing that a July 1 confidence vote that the chancellor pushed for and then deliberately lost was at odds with the constitution. Germanyâs constitution, framed after World War Two with the political instability of the pre-war Weimar Republic in mind, makes it difficult to dissolve parliament before the end of a regular four-year term.
Still, with all the countryâs leading political parties in favour of elections and the campaign now in full swing, the court had not been expected to disrupt the early vote. In 1983, the last time the court was called on to make a similar ruling, it upheld the then-presidentâs decision to allow an early election even though the chancellor, Helmut Kohl, had a comfortable majority.
Schroeder shocked the nation on May 22 when he called for an early election following a heavy defeat in a regional poll, saying he needed a fresh mandate to continue his programme of economic
Merkelâs conservatives have pledged to further the reform drive in Europeâs largest economy, raising sales tax to fund a lowering of non-wage labour costs, loosening rules on firing people to encourage firms to hire and cutting income tax. On the foreign front, the conservatives and their preferred allies, the liberal Free Democrats, are vowing to improve strained ties with the United States and thwart Turkeyâs bid to join the EU in favour of a âprivileged partnershipâ.