GERMANY: The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, has dismissed suggestions that Berlin has reversed its opposition to sending troops to Iraq. Mr Schröder said in "clear unambiguous language" at cabinet yesterday that his position on Iraq had not changed, said a spokesman.
"There will be no German troops in Iraq," said Mr Thomas Steg, the deputy government spokesman, quoting Mr Schröder.
The categorical "no" came after the defence minister, Mr Peter Struck, appeared to revise Germany's position in a newspaper interview.
Mr Struck ruled out sending troops to Iraq in the short term, but he told the Financial Times Deutschland that "no one can predict the development in that he can make binding statements".
Mr Schröder's staunch opposition to the Iraq war is widely credited with securing his re-election at the last minute in 2002. Any shift from that position could play havoc with support for his Social Democratic Party (SPD), which has only begun to recover in the opinion polls.
Unpopular social reforms and a continued economic slump have cost the SPD tens of thousands of members in the last 18 months. But, after hitting an all-time low of 23 per cent support in July, a new poll yesterday by the Forsa polling agency for Stern magazine shows the SPD with 31 per cent support. Even more cheering news for Mr Schröder is the fact that the gains appear to be at the expense of the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), down from 52 per cent in the summer to just 39 per cent.
The continued slide of the CDU is further bad news for the party leader Dr Angela Merkel, a day after Mr Friedrich Merz (48), her one-time rival and the CDU's deputy parliamentary leader, announced his resignation. His departure from the CDU front bench, whether permanent or temporary, is a personal gain for Dr Merkel, but a political loss, robbing the party of one of its most capable figures.
Mr Merz was the CDU's leading finance expert and a ferocious critic of the debt-plagued Minister for Finance, Mr Hans Eichel. A clearly delighted Mr Eichel remarked: "With Mr Merz's departure, the question arises who the CDU has at all to seriously discuss finance and economic policy."
Mr Merz's resignation crowns a difficult week for Dr Merkel, already engaged in a bitter, public squabble over health system reforms with Mr Edmund Stoiber, head of Bavaria's Christian Social Union.