World News 23-09-2002 Schroeder`s Relief At Narrow Victory who: Gerhard Schroeder what: Wins narrow victory in general election where: Germany when: Last night snippet: "Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his Green allies were last night forecast to win a slim majority in the closest, most thrilling German election since the second world war," reports The Guardian. Conservative Edmund Stoiber admitted defeat in Munich last night but predicted that Herr Schröder`s days would be numbered. "Stoiber`s CDU party nosed ahead of Schroeder`s Social Democrats in yesterday`s general election by a tiny 0.3 per cent," explains The Daily Record. "But Schroeder will rely on the Green Party to help him into government after they polled better than expected [they won 55 seats]." "There was no mistaking the relief of Herr Schröder as he hugged his partner, Joschka Fischer, the Foreign Minister and head of the Greens, after a night of rollercoaster emotions," says Roger Boyes in The Times. "It certainly looks like a majority for the Social Democrats and Greens," the Chancellor said, "and we are resolved to stick together as a coalition for another four years." 48,574,607 votes were cast from a total of 61,388,671 registered voters - a 79.1% turnout compared to 82.2% in 1998 in 1998, says The Financial Times. Herr Stoiber predicted "that this Schröder government will rule only for a very short time." [... more]

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