Schroeder Survives Confidence Vote

BERLIN —  Having ordered his coalition partners to back him or sack him, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder narrowly won parliamentary support Friday for both his continued leadership and his plans to dispatch 3,900 troops to the war against terrorism.

The 336-326 vote approving the reinforcements for U.S. and British troops in and around Afghanistan was a victory for the chancellor, who gambled his entire government on the outcome by pairing the deployment vote with a vote of confidence in his performance in office.

But with such a small margin of votes in his favor--four of the 666 lawmakers were absent, and he was left with only two votes ahead of the 334 needed--Schroeder may only have delayed rather than defeated collapse of his long-problematic partnership of his own party, the left-of-center Social Democrats, and the pacifist Greens.

The close call on the question of how Germany should respond to the Sept. 11 terror attacks also demonstrated how deeply Germans are divided over Schroeder’s efforts to force them to shoulder their share of responsibility for global security.

Still, the chancellor confidently defended his tactics and insisted after the vote that it showed that the coalition government is capable of deft management of even the most volatile situations.

“This decision shows that when things get serious, this coalition sticks together. Now let’s get to work!” Schroeder pronounced after the showdown.

It was only the fourth time in Germany’s post-World War II history that a chancellor had called for a vote of confidence, and the first to tie the endorsement to a policy decision. Had the twinned measures failed, Schroeder would have had to resign and call new elections--10 months ahead of the next scheduled nationwide vote.

Some analysts argued that Schroeder wanted to force early elections to capitalize on his current standing among German voters, who despite deep reservations about getting involved in actual combat have been supportive of his steady handling of the security crisis. Polls show only a slim majority endorsing the military deployment, but Schroeder’s popularity has soared to a 78% approval rating in the latest monthly survey by the Infratest agency.

The opposition Christian Democrats, by contrast, are beset by power struggles and the taint of an illegal donations scandal involving former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The solidity of the governing partnership will face another test in a week, however, when the Greens hold their annual party conference and debate whether a political force born of the 1960s peace movement can survive as an advocate of armed conflict.

At that gathering, Greens who feel that their existential pacifism has been sacrificed are expected to defect, leaving Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer with a minority committed to the governing coalition. That could force him to resign as vice chancellor and again put the fate of the government in question.

Even if the Greens survive as the coalition’s junior partners, their slumping popularity may prevent them from getting enough votes in the elections in September to qualify for seats in parliament, never mind a second term in government. A party must win at least 5% of the vote, and recent state elections have shown the Greens hovering precariously close to the threshold.

Schroeder’s Nov. 6 announcement that he would send a contingent of special forces, medics, anti-chemical warfare teams and a naval detachment to bolster the U.S.-led war against terrorism compelled eight Greens and even one Social Democrat to announce their intent to vote against the deployment order.

Schroeder was still assured of securing a majority in the parliamentary vote mandated by the constitution for any foreign troop deployment because the Christian Democrats and Free Democrats have steadfastly pledged all necessary support for U.S. allies.

But the chancellor, tired of having to fight his own coalition partners on important issues, on Wednesday resubmitted the request for lawmakers’ approval of the deployment with a vote of confidence in his leadership attached.

In the end, four Greens stuck by their vow to vote against the deployment--and, by default, against their own coalition. They said they refused to bow to political “blackmail.”

“We are all of the view that the war in Afghanistan is wrong, although we are also of the opinion that the coalition should continue,” said Greens lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele, explaining the decision by the eight original naysayers to evenly divide their votes, four in favor and four against.

An impassioned Fischer, who was to leave today for talks in Washington, urged his Greens colleagues to keep in mind the party’s accomplishments as a governing partner in forcing renunciation of nuclear power, a reform of the pension system and an array of ecological and health reforms.

“The decision as to whether this government wins is a decision on the future of this country, whether we can continue with its ecological and social renewal,” Fischer said. “Germany needs this leadership.”

At the start of a three-hour parade of fiery speeches that preceded the vote, Schroeder heralded the success of the U.S.-led actions in Afghanistan to free that country from the “stranglehold” of the Taliban regime and insisted that German support was needed for ultimate victory.

“Swift success cannot be guaranteed. But we can and will win the war if we give timely approval to engage all necessary means,” the chancellor told an unruly session repeatedly interrupted by partisan heckling.

Playing to the feminist faction within the Greens, Schroeder reminded the lawmakers of the joyous scenes in the Afghan capital, Kabul, this week when the Taliban withdrew ahead of a Northern Alliance invasion and “women were finally free to go out into their own streets.”

Though Schroeder prevailed, the contentious clash carried live on national television was damaging, observers said, because it gave opponents a platform to denounce not only his tactics in the deployment vote but his economic maneuvers as Germany teeters on the brink of recession.

“A government that just barely survives a confidence motion with a narrow majority is hanging by a silken thread and is not capable of governing,” the Handelsblatt business daily contended.

The mass-circulation Bild newspaper described the forced confidence motion as “high-handed” and warned that an alliance based on arm-twisting “doesn’t usually last long.”