German Elections Conclude - 2002-09-22

Voting in the German electoral districts has concluded. The voter turnout in today's parliamentary elections was very high. The initial results of the vote counting do not determine the winner of the election; Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his electoral rival Edmund Stoiber, the Minister-President of Bavaria, are proceeding neck and neck. Economic issues, including the unemployment rate, were among the topics of all electoral programs. The issue of a U.S. military attack on Iraq and Gerhard Schröder's statements regarding Germany's non-participation in such an attack were another electoral issue. These statements have caused a deterioration in U.S.-German relations. Comments from the Justice Minister in Schröder's cabinet have also contributed to this tension. It is reported that Ms. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, the German Justice Minister, compared President Bush's policy regarding Iraq to Adolf Hitler's policy, stating that foreign policy is being used to divert public attention from domestic problems. With the initial election results, it has become clear that the former Communist Party of Germany, known as the Social Democratic Party, failed to achieve the threshold of 5% of the votes and is thus barred from participating in parliament.