Commentary: Unusual Politics Of Attacking A Home Government While On An Official Visit Abroad

All Things Considered: February 26, 2003

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

The Iraq question is also dividing politicians in Germany. The latest evidence of that came earlier this week, when Germany's opposition leader paid an unusually high-profile visit to Washington. Angela Merkel got an audience with Vice President Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during her brief visit. News analyst Daniel Schorr believes the attention paid to her was calculated to deliver a not-so-subtle snub to Germany's chancellor.

DANIEL SCHORR:

The coalition of the willing ready to support the United States in an armed clash with Iraq applies to countries like Bulgaria, whose prime minister got a warm welcome from President Bush yesterday. Coalition of the willing seems also to apply to an opposition leader like Angela Merkel, the head of Germany's Christian Democratic Union, who has split with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder over Iraq.

The Bush administration is barely on speaking terms with Schroeder, who has ruled out German participation in any military action and has joined France in sponsoring a no-war measure in the United Nations. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has consigned Germany to the Old Europe.

Mrs. Merkel, warmly received by Vice President Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld, joked that having been brought up in East Germany, she qualified for the New Europe. In her major Washington speech on Monday night, Mrs. Merkel directly attacked the German government's policy. She said that Schroeder, by refusing to support military actions against Iraq, was encouraging a dictator and making war more and not less likely. The consequences of this behavior, she said, will have to be faced by the partners within the security alliance whether they like it or not.

It is unusual for an opposition leader to attack the government back home while on an official visit abroad. But Schroeder has campaigned against President Bush in a German election last September, and since then, Schroeder has lost strength in regional elections.

The current situation in Germany is reminiscent of the 1960s, when liberal Mayor Willy Brandt of West Berlin was obviously favored by President Kennedy over hard-line Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in a West German election. Now Frau Merkel appears ready to match endorsement by the American superpower against Schroeder's support from anti-war Germans. Should make for some interesting politicking in Germany. This is Daniel Schorr.

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