Germany Says a Big 'Nein' to Clintonism

He may be a kindred spirit, but Bill Clinton is no Berliner. The U.S. president has urged Germanys Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to stay the course of welfare reform, the New York Times reported Thursday, but German voters have lost their appetite for their governments Clintonesque "Third Way" policies. Schroeders ruling Social Democratic Party has been humbled in state elections twice in as many weeks as the partys traditional support base stayed home to protest the chancellors proposed sweeping welfare cuts. Last Sundays elections in the former East German state of Thuringia saw Schroeders party not only turfed out of power, but also humiliated by finishing third behind the communists. With the eastern state of Saxony due to vote Sunday, the party is bracing for more bad news, and resistance to Schroeders leadership is mounting. "Schroeders reforms are drastic, even compared with the conservative Christian Democratic government that preceded him," says TIME Bonn correspondent Ursula Sautter. "The Christian Democrats could never have tried to do what the Social Democrats are attempting now - theyre hardly criticizing his welfare plan because they know it needs to be done, and they tried to do it themselves, although a lot more slowly."

Schroeder has attempted to follow in the footsteps of Clinton and Britain's Tony Blair by combining traditional liberal and social democratic concerns with strict fiscal discipline. But the political center in Germany is well to the left of its American equivalent — even conservative governments have traditionally maintained a level of welfare provision that would make Ted Kennedy blush. "Social Democratic supporters have been shocked by Schroeders plans, because theyre so unlike the partys traditional policies," says Sautter. And while Clintons policies were put before the voters at two-year intervals, an ongoing series of state and regional elections has provided an ongoing referendum on Schroeders. "This series of elections in quick succession is creating a snowballing rejection of Schroeders policies," says Sautter. And sooner than get voted out themselves, that may tempt the Social Democrats to ditch Schroeder and his policies.