Dresden election set to boost Merkel
By Honor Mahony
Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU) got a boost on Sunday (2 October) after a delayed election in Dresden gave the party an extra seat in parliament.
The results of the Dresden elections will not change the outcome of the general elections two weeks ago which saw the CDU narrowly beat the ruling Social Democrats, but it does provide an important symbolic victory.
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Preliminary results gave the CDU 37 percent of the vote, followed by 32.1 percent for the SPD and 19.23 percent for the newly-formed Left Party.
The extra seat for the CDU means that it increases its lead over the SPD at national level from three to four seats.
Following the result, pressure is likely to mount on chancellor Gerhard Schroder to renounce his claim to the chancellorship - over which he and conservative candidate Angela Merkel have been bickering for the last weeks.
The general election on 18 September produced a hung parliament and talks about forming a grand coalition have been frustrated as both sides claim they ought to be leading whatever government is formed.
German papers report that all three of the main parties, including the liberals, claimed to have their hand strengthened by Sunday's vote.
However, Spiegel Online reports that Franz Muntefering, the head of the SPD, appeared to take a softer line than before on whether Mr Schroder should remain chancellor.
In an interview, Mr Muntefering did not completely exclude a grand coalition without Mr Schroder at its head.
CDU secretary general Volker Kauder said voters in Dresden had clearly fortified Mrs Merkel's position and called on the "sensible forces" in the SPD to recognise this.
There is no deadline for forming a government, but the parties have committed themselves to trying to finish negotiations by the end of October at the latest - some six weeks after the general elections.
Some still believe that the only way out of the impasse is to hold another election. The Sueddeutsche newspaper reports some social democrat MPs as saying they would never vote for Mrs Merkel.
The German situation is being watched with interest across the rest of Europe - particularly in Brussels.
With a series of meetings and decisions about the direction of the EU to be taken in the near future, the last thing Brussels wants is negotiations in the bloc's biggest member state that drag on well into November or December.