Overcoming Brezhnev

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HE elections to be held in Germany on September 18 will act as a sizable pebble spread- ing ripples far and wide across the pond of world politics. The incumbent chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a social democrat in power since 1998, faces Angela Merkel, a conservative. Polls in the run-up have given Merkel a lead between ten and fourteen points, but Schroeder is an experienced and un- scrupulous campaigner who stops at noth- ing. Der Spiegel, the leading German magazine, has called him “the Great Manipulator.” Again according to polls, a third of the electorate will make up its mind only at the last minute.

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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HE elections to be held in Germany on September 18 will act as a sizable pebble spread- ing ripples far and wide across the pond of world politics. The incumbent chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a social democrat in power since 1998, faces Angela Merkel, a conservative. Polls in the run-up have given Merkel a lead between ten and fourteen points, but Schroeder is an experienced and un- scrupulous campaigner who stops at noth- ing. Der Spiegel, the leading German magazine, has called him “the Great Manipulator.” Again according to polls, a third of the electorate will make up its mind only at the last minute.