Mountain to Climb in Germany

German voters chose change at the polls Sunday, closing the 16-year-long stewardship of conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who saw his nation though the post-Cold War reunification of the two Germanys and the unification of the continent under the European Union.

He leaves a government that made Germany an economic and political powerhouse, and for that Germans must be grateful. But the reunification of the country proved to be more costly and difficult than expected. For the people of the former West Germany it meant new taxes and old problems. For the people in East Germany it meant massive unemployment and disillusionment. For Kohl it eventually meant defeat at the polls.

The reins of power will be held by Gerhard Schroeder, the Social Democratic victor. Onto him fall the demands for change expressed by the voters. Living up to those expectations won’t be easy. For instance, for the 4 million unemployed in Germany today, change means a job. For the business community, change means lower taxes and a reform of the exceedingly costly social welfare system.

Schroeder avoided specific stands on many tough issues facing the country but did deal with some key ones, declaring he would seek tax reductions, jobs for the unemployed and maintenance of the welfare system. That sounds fine but politically will be a mountainous undertaking.

Although Schroeder’s Social Democrats won the election with an estimated 41.2% of the vote, that is not enough to establish one-party rule. As a result, the chancellor-elect has extended an invitation to the Green Party to begin negotiations on building a coalition. It would be the Greens’ first role in a national government and would present Schroeder with some unique political challenges.

Both parties embrace a social agenda aimed at combating unemployment, scrapping nuclear energy and granting long-time foreign residents of Germany dual nationality. But the Greens also have some controversial environmental ideas. For example, they want to raise the price of gasoline to about $11 a gallon and set a 60-mph speed limit on the autobahn. On foreign affairs, the Greens demand a review of Germany’s membership in NATO, a stand certain to upset the country’s key allies.

How Schroeder approaches these challenges will be an early and necessary test of his ability to govern.