Christian Democrats

KIEL, Germany -- Germany's Christian Democratic Union, punished for the financial scandal that has engulfed the party and its former chancellor, Helmut Kohl, crashed to a heavy defeat yesterday by the governing Social Democrats in an election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. The result amounted to the first concrete confirmation of the Christian Democrats' electoral plight since the financial scandal broke late last year. Three months ago, opinion polls showed Volker Ruehe, Kohl's last defense minister and the party's candidate for premier in Schleswig-Holstein, with a seemingly unassailable 10 percentage-point lead over the Social Democrats.

Rep. Anthony Weiner and former Rep. Christopher Lee will forever be linked as both New York congressmen used social media to cheat on their wives and send embarrassing photographs. Rep. Weiner, a prominent Democrat, and Rep. Lee, a second-term Republican congressman, are both presumably guilty of adultery in one sense or another. But while the extent and number of Mr. Weiner's offenses made Mr. Lee's crime seem marginal, it was Mr. Lee who felt he deserved a far greater punishment. Their recent scandals provide a stark contrast of the ethics, morality and respect for public office among Democrats and Republicans in Washington.

BERLIN - The governing Social Democrats won a comfortable victory yesterday in Germany's largest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, confirming both the resurgence of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the plight of the opposition Christian Democrats. Reliable projections from German television gave the Social Democrats 43.5 percent of the vote and the Christian Democrats 37 percent. Before a major financial scandal engulfed the Christian Democrats six months ago, the party appeared poised to win the state, which has been governed by the Social Democrats for 34 years.

Angela Merkel, Germany's first female chancellor and head of its Christian Democrats (CDU), is negotiating a policy agenda with her partners in a new government formed after national elections last month, the Social Democrats (SPD). The talks are proving a tough slog. But they should be finished by mid-November, when the two parties' agreed agenda will be announced and the parliament can confirm her as head of government, succeeding the SPD's Gerhard Schroeder. At first glance, Ms. Merkel's position doesn't look strong: During last summer's campaign, she squandered a huge lead, with her party and its Bavarian sister, the Christian Socials (CSU)

Nuke North Korea to keep it from nukes? Howzat again?Italy is running an election with no Communists, Christian Democrats or Socialists. The old rogues all have new names.

RARE IS the election in which both major parties take comfort in the results, but that is the case in Germany after the Hamburg state elections last month.Party leaders see the portents of victory in next year's national elections: the conservative Christian Democrats gained ground; their main opposition, the leftist Social Democrats, made their worst post-war showing.But to control Germany's parliament, both parties will likely need a majority coalition with a small party, just as the ruling Christian Democrats now have with the Free Democrats.

ROME -- In nationwide municipal elections depicted as an oracle of things to come, Italian voters registered their disappointment with the tainted parties of the mainstream by turning to the neo-Fascist and former Communist candidates in record numbers.In 428 mayoral ballots from Palermo to Venice Sunday more than one-quarter of Italy's 40 million voters supported the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement, the Democratic Party of the Left, successor to the Communist Party of Italy, or the insurgent Northern League.

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- The future of Norway's state alcohol monopoly, which charges sky-high prices that make drinkers grumble, has become a political headache for the Labor Party government as it eases the nation toward free trade in Europe.Voters of the tiny but influential Christian Democratic Party are appalled by the threat of cheap alcohol after the European Free Trade Association and the European Community join up in a vast free market Jan. 1, 1993.And the Christian Democrats have enough swing votes in parliament to keep EFTA-member Norway out of the so-called European Economic Area (EEA)

Italy's parliamentary election tomorrow and Monday will create a new government and a new politician situation. It must. The old structures disintegrated. Just as the election of 1948 determined the course of Italian politics for the next 46 years, the election of 1994 must do something similar.The collapse of the Soviet Union and Cold War made the once-mighty Communist Party look foolish, but also destroyed the great appeal of the Christian Democrats, which was to stop the Communist threat.

Don't count Helmut Kohl out yet. The German chancellor's Christian Democrats dealt a harsh blow to polls and pundits by coming in first in the elections to the European Parliament with roughly 39 percent of the German vote against some 33 percent for Social Democrats.The European Parliament is a monthly talk shop in Strasbourg with gradually increasing powers (from minuscule to somewhat more) in the European Union (formerly Common Market and European Community). Its elections are watched partly to show international swings of opinion but also as domestic referendums within each country.

LONDON -- "It's a distressing outcome, the worst possible."In the confusion from Germany's closest parliamentary election in history, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder claimed victory again yesterday over his opponent, Angela Merkel - who again claimed victory herself. Whatever the ultimate outcome, one thing seems clear: With leadership changes imminent in Europe's most powerful countries - in France, Britain and possibly Italy - Germany's chance to reform itself and rebound to play a stronger role in Europe has been lost for now. The importance of Sunday's vote goes beyond Germany's borders, as reflected already by the wobbling euro, which yesterday hit a seven-week low against the dollar, a drop that has serious implications for countries throughout Europe.

LONDON -- Germany's voters left their country in suspense last night, as both Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative opponent claimed victory in parliamentary elections too close to call, leaving hopes for clear policies to fix Europe's largest economy at least temporarily on hold. The only result from the elections that seemed clear last night was that Schroeder's existing coalition would no longer remain in power, though he could conceivably remain chancellor. Official results showed conservative challenger Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats getting slightly more votes than Schroeder's Social Democrats but failing to win the majority needed to govern, even when combined with her preferred coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democrats.

FROM THE forest at the edge, the little yellow truck traveled down, deeper and deeper, into the pit. It passed below the serrated gray-black edges of the seam and drove and bumped deeper still, until it was at the bottom - more than 1,000 feet down - of the open-face Tagebau Hambach coal mine, an immense monument to German energy. Here there was a towering excavator, one of six. From behind his handlebar mustache, Andreas von der Linden, a member of the mine's works council, reeled off the statistics: each machine more than 100 feet high, resting on eight mammoth tractor treads, weighing 13,000 tons, requiring 40 tons of paint, designed for a crew of five, able to dig out 240,000 tons of lignite coal a day. A soft breeze flowed, even at the dusty, barren bottom, carrying the faint smell of coal.

BERLIN - The governing Social Democrats won a comfortable victory yesterday in Germany's largest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, confirming both the resurgence of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the plight of the opposition Christian Democrats. Reliable projections from German television gave the Social Democrats 43.5 percent of the vote and the Christian Democrats 37 percent. Before a major financial scandal engulfed the Christian Democrats six months ago, the party appeared poised to win the state, which has been governed by the Social Democrats for 34 years.

KIEL, Germany -- Germany's Christian Democratic Union, punished for the financial scandal that has engulfed the party and its former chancellor, Helmut Kohl, crashed to a heavy defeat yesterday by the governing Social Democrats in an election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. The result amounted to the first concrete confirmation of the Christian Democrats' electoral plight since the financial scandal broke late last year. Three months ago, opinion polls showed Volker Ruehe, Kohl's last defense minister and the party's candidate for premier in Schleswig-Holstein, with a seemingly unassailable 10 percentage-point lead over the Social Democrats.

LAST TIME the German left seized the chancellorship from the German right, the functional equivalent of a political coup d'etat was required. The year was 1969. Kurt Georg Kiesinger, the incumbent Christian Democratic chancellor, thought he had won a personal victory when his party got 46.1 percent of the vote -- easily the largest tally won by any single party.But 46.1 percent is not 50.1 percent. And even if the 5.5 percent cast for fringe parties is discarded, it is not the 48-plus percent that would be required to win an absolute majority of the seats in the Bundestag.

EUROLAND, POISED to unify the currencies of 11 countries under one central bank on New Year's Day, expects seasoned government from the dominant member. If the polls before the Sept. 27 election are to be believed, Germany may not provide it.No politician in Europe has the solid accomplishments of Germany's four-term, 16-year Christian Democratic chancellor, Helmut Kohl, who unified Germany when much of Europe was opposed and pushed through the euro when many doubted it could be done.For this, his compatriots may chuck the conservative Mr. Kohl and pick inexperienced leadership from the left.

Silvio Berlusconi resigned as prime minister of Italy too early and for the wrong reason. On that rests his hope of regaining power through a rapid election, which he demanded but which President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is not obligated to call.Mr. Berlusconi, a billionaire businessman, campaigned for power from the outside as a shining foe of corruption. To many, his rhetoric was never credible because his own fantastic success in business raised questions. Now Mr. Berlusconi is under investigation by independent magistrates.

BONN, Germany -- Germany turned to a new political generation last night as Gerhard Schroeder and the Social Democratic Party triumphed in parliamentary elections to end the 16-year reign of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.Promising to boost the economy and solve the plight of Germany's jobless, the 54-year-old Schroeder won the right to forge a ruling parliamentary coalition and become Germany's first chancellor raised in the post-World War II era."The voters have decided who should lead the country into the future," Schroeder told jubilant supporters.

EUROLAND, POISED to unify the currencies of 11 countries under one central bank on New Year's Day, expects seasoned government from the dominant member. If the polls before the Sept. 27 election are to be believed, Germany may not provide it.No politician in Europe has the solid accomplishments of Germany's four-term, 16-year Christian Democratic chancellor, Helmut Kohl, who unified Germany when much of Europe was opposed and pushed through the euro when many doubted it could be done.For this, his compatriots may chuck the conservative Mr. Kohl and pick inexperienced leadership from the left.