So small in fact that it will require a lot of discipline – and forming a coalition will take some time

So small, in fact, that it will require a lot of discipline – and forming a coalition will take some time.Suddeutsche Zeitung,GermanyTHIS IS a new generation arriving in power, less sensitive to the weight of the horrors of the past. Now that Germany is going to become the republic of Berlin, France must dare more and harder.Le Figaro, France. The voters were more keen for a change than anyone might have expected It was a courageous election. If one adds up the votes cast for left-of-centre parties, the swing that becomes apparent is greater than that of the legendary Willy-Brandt election.The results signal a big change, not just a little shift Change is upon us But “red-green’s” majority will be small.

Kohl and Waigel didn’t stand a chance with their level-headed calculations against a challenger who made vague promises of stability and affluence. Frankfurter Allgemeine,
GermanyWHETHER SCHRoDER wants it or not, it will now be up to him to influence the nature, evolution and comportment of this new nation state born of the fall of the Wall It is an enormous responsibility which he inherits. A responsibility which is impossible for us to ignore, or hide in discourse suited to the progress of social democracy in Europe.Liberation, FranceKOHL SPOKE of a dynamism, but wasn’t able to convey it. He spoke of an atmosphere of renewal, but went about spreading the opposite. Hoho, heehee.So yes, of course, we can all agree that we need good political debate in this country. But too often the last place we’ll find it is at party conferences. No, readers, we’ll just have to do the show here, in the old barn..

THE VOTERS have abandoned Kohl and the Union because they couldn’t recognise their “people’s” party in the socio-political laws and undertakings of this government This applied especially to voters in the East. So what if, for nearly two decades, 42 per cent of voters gave us a government that 58 per cent didn’t want? Now it’s our turn. So what if, for years, Labour voters in large swathes of the South East had no representatives at all? Now the Tories elect no MPs in Scotland. The FDP misjudged this, and is now paying for its wrong assessment. The openness of the voters towards reform is limited to those areas where only small, or no, sacrifices are necessary.