Talk:German Chancellery Elections, 2005

Potential Example of Bias in US Press Reports
Reports have been coming out of the German Election that "Exit Polls" show that the conservative Christian Democrats party, headed by Angela Merkel, lead with a less than 37% popular vote.

Angela Merkel has called it a "Mandate". Doesn't this Sound familar?

Schroder might be able to deal with the Greens for a coallition control, without him havng to deal with other minority left parties.

I am requesting anyone coming across American Press stories mentioning either "exit polls", or a "mandate" when reporting on this election, drop a link here if possible.

It would be an interesting study to compare entities that support Merkel, based partly upon exit polls, with their reporting on Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election's exit polls.

Here's is the UK's Press Associates story, published in Sunday, Sept, 18, 2005's edition of The Scotsman:


 * Press Associates (PA), "Merkel has edge in German exit poll", The Scotsman, September 18, 2005


 * Exit polls showed conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party in the lead and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's seven-year-old government voted out, as Germans chose between different visions of their country's role in the world and how to fix its sputtering economy.


 * The exit poll from ZDF public television showed Merkel's Christian Democrats at 37%, worse than expected and uncertain of winning a majority with her preferred coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats.


 * Schroeder's Social Democrats and Greens were at 33% and 8.5% respectively.


 * Polls opened at 8am (7am UK time) across Germany, with turnout expected to pick up as the day went along. In Frankfurt, the city's financial capital, many shops planned to open for business despite normally being closed.


 * If Merkel's Christian Democrats cannot win a majority with her preferred partners - the small, pro-business Free Democrats - the former physicist could be forced to share power in a coalition with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats.


 * A poll, carried out by the Forsa institute between Monday and Friday, put support for the Christian Democrats at between 41 and 43%, with the Free Democrats between 7 and 8%. That left it very much open whether they would win a majority in parliament.


 * If they do, Merkel - aided by her party's control of the upper house of parliament - will be able to move ahead with proposals to streamline the tax system, making it easier for small companies to sack people and loosen the rigid labour market in order to tackle an 11.4% unemployment rate and low rates of economic growth.


 * Schroeder called for the election a year ahead of time in frustration at resistance to his attempts to fix the economy as unemployment hit record highs in his seven years in power and growth remained sluggish. His limited measures cutting taxes and long-term jobless benefits have been slow to show convincing results.


 * There is also the outside chance that Schroeder will be able to stay in power, if he can cobble together a three-way coalition with his Social Democrats and the Greens, along with either the Free Democrats or the Left party.

--Hugh Manatee 16:48, 18 Sep 2005 (EDT)