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Poll result a setback to Schroeder

By Batuk Gathani

BRUSSELS SEPT. 23. The anti-Berlin centre-right Christian Democrats have taken 81 per cent of the vote in a regional election in Bavaria delivering the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder's Red and Green coalition government a crippling blow. The vote boosted the prospects of the leader of the Christian Social Union and incumbent Prime Minister of the state of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, to run for Chancellorship in 2006.

Mr. Schroeder came to power with a paper-thin majority last September when he defeated Mr. Stoiber in the national elections. But the voters' disenchantment with his Government has been growing at an alarming pace following his failure to boost economic growth and flow of investments and halt the high rate of unemployment. This led to his party's third and most devastating electoral defeat in this year.

The unemployment has crossed the psychologically sensitive mark of plus four million. According to estimates, Germany may even register a negative growth by year end. Due to recessionary conditions, there is a high insolvency rate in the corporate sector as a record number of small and large companies have gone bankrupt. The election result is interpreted as a personal triumph for Mr. Stoiber. A jubilant Stoiber said: "The vote is a warning to Berlin — the voters have had enough of being made fool of."

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