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TODAY Tuesday 10 March 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site. |
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TODAY Tuesday 10 March 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site. |
TODAY IN THE WORLD: Die Gruenen und der SDP
Many jahre ago, wann ich football at high school played, der coach -- Herr Bob Wray -- an easy language course was teaching. German, natuerlich! Unlike Spanish, or even French, nobody you knew could ever really test you to see if you actually spoke German, so we all imitated Herr Wray's Middle American accent and thought ourselves accomplished. When I visited Germany the summer after graduation, the sad truth was revealed -- I had trouble ordering breakfast -- but the bug had bitten. Without ever really enjoying myself, I've spent a fair amount of time ever since keeping up with things German.
The latest news from the world's most ponderous culture is encapsulated in a headline from yesterday's edition of the Environmental News Network: "German Greens Issue Warning to Schroeder." The lead: "Germany's Greens party warned Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder on Saturday they want clear commitments from him on the environment if they are to help him oust Chancellor Helmut Kohl in September's general election."
Gerhard Schroeder aspires to be the Bill Clinton / Tony Blair of German politics -- a leader of an out-of-power left-of-center party who defeats more conservative opponents by evincing a public personality of conciliation, modernity, and optimism. Like Clinton and Blair, Schroeder is a policy wonk who runs on generalities, a telegenic non-ideologue. Last week he was re-elected premier of the state of Lower Saxony (a bleak piece of earth) by a big margin and then almost immediately elected by his Social Democratic Party to lead it in the September elections to unseat the long-lived government of Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democrats.
Schroeder upsets some of the puritanical elements of German society. His recent fourth marriage (and divorce of his popular third wife) doesn't sit well with everyone, although Europeans these days are doing their best to demonstrate their sophistication about such things. And his disinclination to get too specific about the policies he would adopt when in power, though acceptable enough to the average voter, is a source of deep anxiety to the manifesto-loving tradition of the German left, which is the tradition that spawned the Greens. "Now he's smiling down from every billboard poster with the deeply profound message that he is ready," mocked Green co-leader Gunda Roestel. (It's very Green to have titles like "co-leader.")
The polls tell Schroeder that he will probably have to form a coalition with the Greens if he wants a reliable majority in the next Bundestag. The Greens worry because they think Schroeder is slippery, and Schroeder worries because he thinks that the Greens' platform might cost him the election. The biggest potential point of contention is the Greens' proposal for a tripling of the gasoline tax over a ten-year period (to more than $10 per gallon in 1998 prices), with the proceeds dedicated to pensions and other income-maintenance programs. Payroll taxes would be decreased, in the hopes of spurring employment. Another Greens' idea is big surcharges against high-income taxpayers, with the money going to mass transit.
These proposals would kill any American candidacy (though personally, I like them), and they are probably too much for the ambitious Herr Schroeder. How he and the Greens will cooperate -- or agree to disagree -- will be one of the most important, and absorbing, environmental stories of the year.
TODAY ON THE SITE
Tom Turner appears again today with an old presshound's appreciation of the movie Wag The Dog. Check out his "In Other News..." column. We are fortunate that environmental politics have not been sullied by the distasteful variety of machinations parodied in the film.
Recent "Today" columns:
3/9: In Search for the Holy Grail of the Forests
3/6: My Doom, Your Gloom
3/5: The Great D. P. Moynihan
3/4: "An Earthquake in Insurance"
3/3: Salmon Farming
3/2: Our Friends the Duck Killers
2/27: Trust El Nino
2/26: That Darn Triple-A
2/25: Cutting a Deal on Endangered Species
2/24: Fire? Again?
2/23: Garbage
2/20: Population Rebellion in the Sierra Club
2/19: The Trouble With Cattle
2/18: Optimistic Feds and the Future of Kyoto
2/17: The New Great Game
2/13: Windmills
2/12: Stuart Eizenstat's Smart Bomb
2/11: Alligator in the Coal Mine
2/10: Inconvenient Public Opinion
2/9: Remember Penn Station
2/6: Adam Smith and Automobile Efficiency
2/5: Clean Water, Naturally
2/4: Roll, Storms, Roll
2/3: Land Purchase Fever
2/2: Groundhog Day in the Persian Gulf
1/30: Trees and Hormones
1/29: Things To Come (2)
1/28: Things To Come
1/27: 'Bye, 'Bye Brazil
1/26: Jaywalking and Jaydriving
1/23: Good Biotech, Bad Biotech
1/22: No More Roads
1/21: Swordfish
To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.