Germany's electoral choice

I don't think Martin Kettle has really grasped the German political system or how the German electorate have treated Gerhard Schröder (Comment, September 6). When Schröder beat Kohl in 1998 he did so as decisively as Tony Blair beat John Major, but didn't get anywhere near the same parliamentary majority. Four years on and having not done much wrong and without a particularly impressive opposition it would have seemed just to let the SPD carry on. Instead, the result was pretty much a dead-heat.

Schröder carried the day by the skin of his teeth and a quirk of the electoral system leading to a majority for his coalition of nine seats. Immediately following the election the SPD's support nose-dived and it has since lost virtually every state election that has been going. This correspondingly affects the constitution of the upper house which now has a solid CDU/CSU majority and the power to block legislation - not really the clear mandate of which Kettle writes. It seems a bit unfair, therefore, to dismiss Schröder as a disaster.
Ritchie Kay
Seehem-Jugenheim, Germany

The next two Sundays will see elections in Japan and Germany (September 11 and 18). These countries have the second and third most powerful economies on earth, but both are sluggish and faltering. The elections have been forced by Japanese prime minister Koizumi and German chancellor Schröder threatening to commit political "hara-kiri" and "selbstmord" respectively, because they have failed to persuade their party colleagues in government to accept their economic reforms.

In comparison, Britain's economy is Europe's most dynamic and is the world's fourth most powerful. Britain has a ruling party that reformed itself before it set about reforming the country. We have Blair, who has won three consecutive elections, and who will leave office before the next not having been shown the door by his party or his people.
Mark Hendrick MP
Lab Coop, Preston

Many thousands of people in Germany are terrified by the thought of what a rightwing or even centre-right government would do. Merkel wants, for instance, a flat rate for medical insurance (currently around 14% of gross income) so that everyone would pay the same. And you can forget letting Turkey into the EU.

The average salary is less than £20,000 a year. The CDU will, in its first year, quantifiably reduce the standard of living for millions of ordinary working Germans. This is not leftwing moaning, but reality. The SPD is moving towards what I hope will be the future for all left of centre parties in Europe, not a slave to the unions or unrealistic in the global world, but an organisation that fights for ordinary people, to improve their lives and give them equal opportunities.
Gavin Taylor
Barenthin, Germany

Martin Kettle ignores the fact that social democracy cannot flourish unless government has control of the main levers of economic policy - monetary and fiscal rules and taxation. When Germany joined the euro, it gave up control over interest rates, lost its currency and had its ability to borrow curtailed by the need to comply with the growth and stability pact. Those sections of the European left, including members of the SPD and of the new Linkspartei and indeed foreign minister Joschka Fischer, who enthusiastically embraced the euro, must themselves bear responsibility for the death of the European social model.
Denzil Davies
Burry Port, Carmarthenshire

If Chris Haskins can be thrown out of the Labour party for donating money to a Lib Dem candidate (Letters, September 3), is it possible for those "British ministers ... now rooting for Angela Merkel" to be thrown out too?
D Cameron
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs