GERMANY:THE FIRST serious cracks appeared in Germany's grand coalition yesterday after the Social Democrats (SPD) announced that they would field their own candidate for the office of president next year.
Their Christian Democrat (CDU) partners attacked the move as an attack on the incumbent president, Horst Köhler, who has signalled that he would like to serve a second term in the largely symbolic post.
Now Mr Köhler faces a rerun of the 2004 vote when, as CDU nominee, he defeated the SPD's choice, Gesine Schwan, president of Viadrina University on the German-Polish border.
To oust Mr Köhler, Ms Schwan needs a majority at a specially convened "Federal Assembly" of Bundestag MPs and state delegates.
Ms Schwan is a popular figure and may well attract CDU votes again as she did in 2004, but the only guarantee of reversing her previous narrow defeat is with votes from the Left Party.
"I will canvass from votes from all parties, also from the Left," she said yesterday. "Whoever votes for me from the Left has decided for democracy." Though a year away, the May 2009 presidential vote could signal the end of the grand coalition.
SPD leaders risk confusing voters if, months after accepting Left support to get Ms Schwan elected president, they vow to continue their boycott of the Left after the next general election.
The current Bundestag already has a left-wing majority, but the SPD and Greens refuse to co-operate with the Left, formed a year ago when disillusioned SPD members joined forces with the successor party to the East German communists.
"This is a regrettable announcement," said Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, "because it delivers the SPD into the hands of the Left Party." CDU state governor Peter Müller said that the grand coalition, barely halfway through its term, was already nearing breaking point.
"The question arises whether an end with the horror would be better in the long run than horror without end," he said.
Other senior conservatives said that by breaking a tradition of not challenging a sitting president, the SPD had drained the remaining trust from Berlin's political marriage of convenience.
"I assume that we won't achieve much from now on," said Günther Beckstein, of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU). "It'll be bad for Germany if we have 16 months of standstill."