Word: bundesrat
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...expect them to be expanded anytime soon. Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrat-Green government got a law on partnerships through in 2001, but a bill that would have treated same-sex partners the same as married couples on taxes, pensions and adoption stalled in the conservative-dominated Bundesrat. Even domestic partnerships remain off the agenda in Italy, where the Catholic Church's influence remains strongest. Perhaps to defuse the issue, some politicians even question whether marriage is such a great idea in the first place. "Marriage has been a tragedy for heterosexuals," argues Vittorio Sgarbi, a gay marriage...
...fled Germany or were killed at Auschwitz, and the property was nationalized after the war. Another retail chain, Hertie, long ago swallowed up the firm's remaining assets in West Germany. And today, the spot where Wertheim's flagship store once stood is an empty wasteland directly opposite the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament. But Wertheim hasn't disappeared into the history book - far from it. For more than a decade, the Leipziger Platz site - and a patchwork of other prime real estate in the heart of Berlin that belonged to Wertheim - has been the object...
...dealmaking worked both ways. In the case of a big new Bundesrat office building on Schiffbauerdamm, another Wertheim property, Hertie assigned its rights to the government for just j700,000, a fraction of the estimated €20 million that the government would have had to pay at market prices. "Governments the world over give sweetheart deals," says Gary Osen, a U.S. lawyer whose suit in a New Jersey court on behalf of the Wertheim family helped to unearth some of these details. "What you don't see a lot of - and what makes this alarming - is that the government...
...Meeting in a soundproof Berlin conference room with no natural light - it's referred to as the Dark Room by pundits - this secretive political council hammers out agreements on legislation that has been adopted by the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, but rejected by the upper house, the Bundesrat. While the SPD won control of the Bundestag in September, last week's elections gave the CDU increased power over the Bundesrat. That means almost every new piece of legislation must be negotiated by the Mediation Committee - whose 32 members, drawn from both houses of parliament, are now evenly divided...
...Social Democratic (SPD) stronghold for the past 13 years. Losing Lower Saxony would be especially humiliating for Schröder, who ran the state as premier from 1990 until 1998 when he became Chancellor. More importantly, a double victory would further strengthen the CDU's position in the Bundesrat, the upper house of the German parliament, making it harder for Schröder's coalition with the Greens to push through economic reforms. Since his re-election, Schröder has seen his popularity plummet because of rising unemployment, labor unrest and a gaping budget deficit. "Should the SPD lose...