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Merkel increases lead in popularity stakes over rival Steinmeier |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 15 June 2009 17:09 |
Berlin - An increasing number of Germans want Chancellor Angela Merkel to remain in office, while her Social Democratic (SPD) challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier is losing in popularity, according to a survey released Thursday.
Of those questioned, 60 per cent said they would vote today for Merkel, of the Christian Democrats (CDU), according to the survey conducted on behalf of ARD state television.
Just 27 per cent would vote for Steinmeier, the foreign minister under Germany's coalition government. The survey showed a 7-per-cent drop in support for Steinmeier, his lowest rating since he announced his candidacy for the chancellery last year.
Germans vote for a new parliament in the general election on September 27.
The survey also showed that Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was very popular, despite SPD-criticism of his handling of Germany's economic crisis.
Guttenberg, who has been in office for just four months, was ranked the third most popular politician behind Merkel and Steinmeier.
The 37-year-old rising star of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), was rated as competent (68 per cent) and credible (66 per cent).
The CDU/CSU alliance rose 2 percentage points in popularity, to 36 per cent, while the SPD fell by the same percentage, to 25 per cent.
The liberal Free Democrats (FDP), favoured CDU/CSU post-September coalition partners, polled 14 per cent in the survey, which also apportioned approval ratings of 13 per cent to the Greens and 9 per cent to the Left Party.
Sunday's European elections returned a record low of 20.8 per cent for the SPD, but most did not consider this to be conclusive for September's general election.
Almost two thirds of respondents did not think the European elections were representative, while 38 per cent thought a coalition of CDU/CSU and FDP was virtually certain, according to the survey.
The findings were based on two surveys by Infratest dimap, in which a total of 2,500 people were questioned.(dpa) |
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Former Russian prime minister Chernomyrdin to advise Medvedev |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 15 June 2009 17:08 |
Moscow - Former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin is set to start work for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as a special envoy for economic cooperation with the former Soviet republics, the president's office reported Thursday.
Chernomyrdin, 71, has worked as Russia's ambassador to Ukraine since 2001, where he has at times been a controversial figure in Ukraine due to comments critical of the Ukrainian government.
Prime minister from 1992 to 1998 under former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin has also worked as a minister for the Russian gas industry. (dpa)
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Schwarzenegger threatens to shut down California |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 15 June 2009 17:07 |
Los Angeles - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will completely shut down state government unless lawmakers quickly reach a deal to close an almost 24-billion-dollar budget gap.
The former action movie star issued the ultimatum in a meeting with the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, the paper reported Thursday.
It was his most dramatic bid to date to get lawmakers from his own Republican party to drop their strident opposition to raising taxes, and to press the majority Democrats to agree to painful cuts in health and welfare programs that are at the heart of their political platform.
His comments came a day after state controller John Chiang warned that California faced a budget meltdown by July if a deal was not reached.
Chiang said that without an agreement the state would have to turn to IOU's and expensive loans to keep basic services running. Chiang said revenues in the most populous state in the US fell by 1.14 billion dollars, or 17.7 per cent in May, and were 827 million dollars lower than those projected in the most recent budget plan last month.
But Schwarzenegger said that the emergency financing was too costly and that his threat to block it was needed to prod lawmakers into action.
A loan would only "give them another reason why we don't have to do it now," the governor said. "What we need to do is just to basically cut off all the funding and just let them have a taste of what it is like when the state comes to a shutdown - grinding halt."(dpa) |
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German Social Democrat aims to salvage battered campaign |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 15 June 2009 17:06 |
Berlin - Germany's top Social Democrat told his party in Berlin Sunday he would speak up for working Germans as he tries to sharpen a flagging campaign for this September's general election.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is trying to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel in the election, attacked her Christian Democratic party and the "ideology" that inspired it.
He said the Social Democrats (SPD) would show workers what they might suffer if a centre-right alliance took over from the current broad coalition of SPD and the Christian Democrats, who include the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU).
"I take the worries of the people seriously. I know damned well what's up," he said. "We'll fight for the woman shop assistant and the building worker. But at the same time, we'll remain the party of the new centrism."
The Social Democrats, who expect to emerge from the general election as Germany's dominant party, were shocked a week ago when their candidates won only 21 per cent of the vote in the European Parliament elections, as against 31 per cent for the CDU.
As the anointed SPD candidate for the chancellorship, deputy SPD leader Steinmeier is widely seen as having an uphill struggle to convince Germans to tip Merkel out of office in the September 27 poll.
Steinmeier, who has faced criticism that his style is not aggressive enough, told the party congress in Berlin the SPD would attack the fundamental policies of Merkel's supporters and those of the opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP), a potential Merkel ally.
"One reason they shouldn't win a majority is that the ideology that got us into this crisis is definitely not the answer to the crisis," he told the 500 delegates, who broke into cheers. (dpa) |
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Bill Clinton undertakes payback campaign tour |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 15 June 2009 17:05 |
Washington, June 14 : Bill Clinton's headlong jump into the 2010 election cycle to support his family's long term supporters might have gone unnoticed, but the former US president has deployed all his political star power to campaign for allies in eight states.
While media attention has focused largely on Clinton''s campaign on behalf of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe's unsuccessful bid, it has now emerged that his efforts on behalf of the longtime Clinton family fundraiser were just a small part of a larger, ongoing payback tour, The Politico reports.
Since January, Clinton has held a series of events to benefit his and his wife''s political friends, including Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler, North Carolina state Senator Julia Boseman, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, all of whom face the voters in 2010.
The newest campaign stop on his schedule is an upcoming fundraiser for Ohio Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, a candidate for the Senate seat of retiring Republican Senator George Voinovich.
He even issued an endorsement in a Democratic primary for the Virginia House of Delegates, backing Adam Parkhomenko, a 23-year-old who worked on the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
"One nice thing about the Clintons: when you work for them, there''s a bond there and they always want to keep it," said Scranton, Pa., Mayor Chris Doherty, for whom Clinton recently recorded robocalls to boost his reelection campaign.
Doherty worked for Hillary Clinton''s campaign in the long run-up to the Pennsylvania primary, and before that organized volunteers to campaign for the then-New York senator in next-door Ohio.
He met former President Clinton at a fundraising reception he and his wife held at their house for the Clinton presidential campaign.
At the time, Doherty said, Clinton told him: "If I can ever help you out, let me know."
"I called him and asked him, would you do a robocall for me?" Doherty said. "And he said, sure, glad to do it." (ANI) |
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Page 5 of 5 |
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