Gerhard Schröder will remain the German Chancellor, but his majority in Parliament has become extremely narrow. His Social Democrats (SPD) got 38.5 per cent of votes, and so did the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) of his rival candidate Edmund Stoiber. The main reason why Schröder won is that his coalition partner, the Greens, became slightly stronger than the Free Democrats (FDP) who would otherwise most probably have formed a center-right government with the CDU/CSU.
Gerhard Schröder will remain the German Chancellor, but his majority in Parliament has become extremely narrow. His Social Democrats (SPD) got 38.5 per cent of votes, and so did the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) of his rival candidate Edmund Stoiber. The main reason why Schröder won is that his coalition partner, the Greens, became slightly stronger than the Free Democrats (FDP) who would otherwise most probably have formed a center-right government with the CDU/CSU.