The fate of Chancellor Gerhard Schr÷der's Social Democrat-Green coalition hangs in the balance pending today's confidence vote. The vote was originally called to ask deputies to back sending German troops to Afghanistan, as required by German law.
But faced with internal revolt, Mr Schr÷der turned it into a confidence motion, a calculated risk designed to win support for the government and silence anti-war dissenters in the Green Party.
If the Berlin government collapses, it would be "the most spectacular piece of collateral damage following the September 11th attacks", said Die Zeit newspaper yesterday.
The SPD chairman, Mr Franz Mⁿnterfering, said he anticipated a "good result that will give new impulse to the government", but the outcome of today's vote is too close to call.
Green Party leaders pleaded with dissidents last night to support the motion and save the government from collapse. To survive the confidence vote, the government needs an absolute majority, or 334 out of the Bundestag's 666 members. However, with a majority of only seven, today's vote could be swayed not just by the eight dissident Greens, but by the absence of another Green deputy, currently in hospital.
SPD leaders are even worried that one party deputy in the last days of her pregnancy will go into labour and miss the confidence vote, only the fourth in Germany's post-war history.
