Schroeder Raus

In what may mark the end, for now at least, of the Franco-German effort to turn Europe into a counterweight to American international power, German voters have ousted 60’s radical-turned-politician Gerhard Schroeder from office. It’s still unclear whether Angela Merkel, who campaigned on a promise to repair ties with Washington, will gain enough seats to win an outright majority with her likely coalition partners. I don’t expect to see dramatic changes in German foreign policy, particularly concerning Iraq, but we can all be thankful that Schroeder’s revolting anti-American scapegoating failed to save him from a well-earned ouster.

Update: In the wake of the elections in Japan and Afghanistan, you’d figure someone would gloat with a world electoral scoreboard of sorts. Just remember what Kipling said about triumph and disaster, lads.

Update 2: Exuberance may indeed be premature. It looks to me like Schroeder could have the seats to form a weak coalition. That would be bad news all around, because the government–whoever wins–will lack the votes to govern. But I’d also suspect that either way, France won’t get much German help in its battle for the dominance of Europe.