Battle for the Bundesrat

The Bundesrat has long been a reassuringly sleepy chamber. Composed of representatives of the 16 German states, the upper house of parliament normally can be counted on to approve new legislation without raising a fuss. All that changed in 1999, however, when the opposition Christian Democrats won a string of state elections, giving them a "blocking minority" in the Bundesrat. Suddenly Chancellor Gerhard Schröder discovered that in order to get laws like his tax reform package through the upper house, he had to wheel and deal or risk certain defeat.

Soon the logjam may be broken. Elections are...