Social Democrat predicts solid party backing for Merkel

A senior German Social Democrat today said he expected his centre-left party to show “great unity” in backing conservative Angela Merkel, its one-time opponent, as chancellor in a parliamentary vote this week.

Politicians meet tomorrow to elect Merkel, 51, as Germany’s first female leader. She will lead a “grand coalition” of her conservative bloc and the Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Merkel needs support from 308 members of the 614-seat lower house to become chancellor.

The coalition has a total of 448 seats, and the wide margin has led to speculation that some Social Democrats could decide that they can deny their election rival support without endangering the new government.

“I haven’t heard from any colleague that he wants to vote no,” said the Social Democrats’ general secretary, Hubertus Heil.

Heil noted that a party convention overwhelmingly backed the hard-fought coalition deal last week – and so, he said, “I expect great unity” in tomorrow’s vote.

The two sides signed their coalition agreement on Friday, a program that aims to boost the sluggish economy, battle an 11 per cent unemployment rate and get the runaway budget deficit back within the EU-imposed limit.

Still, plans to raise value-added tax from 16 per cent to 19 per cent have drawn widespread criticism; and the coalition partners themselves have been keen to stress that their alliance, the result of an inconclusive September 18 election, is only a marriage of convenience.

“The election result brought us this ’grand coalition,’ and now we want to do what people expect us to do and get to work,” Heil said. “It is also true that we are not uniting the parties – we are going into a coalition.”

Later today, the two main parties elect new parliamentary leaders, whose task will be to keep politicians behind the Merkel Cabinet.

The general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, Volker Kauder, takes the job on the conservative side. Kauder, a close Merkel aide, will inherit a post Merkel herself has held for the past three years.

Outgoing Defence Minister Peter Struck becomes the Social Democrats’ new parliamentary leader – returning to a post he held before entering the Cabinet.

He will take over from Franz Muentefering, who is going into the government as Merkel’s vice chancellor.