Word: bundesrat
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...same time, unemployment benefits will be cut by j6 billion next year. "These policies will push a country already stagnating into recession," says Norbert Walter, chief economist of Deutsche Bank. Support for Schröder's Social Democratic Party is so weak that the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, which is narrowly controlled by the opposition conservatives, voted against adopting the higher pension and health-insurance contributions as well as Schröder's much-maligned proposal to reform the labor market by turning unemployment offices into temporary job agencies. The labor reforms were suggested by an independent commission...
...Bundesrat has long been a reassuringly sleepy chamber. Composed of representatives of the 16 German states, the upper house of parliament normally can be counted on to approve new legislation without raising a fuss. All that changed in 1999, however, when the opposition Christian Democrats won a string of state elections, giving them a "blocking minority" in the Bundesrat. Suddenly Chancellor Gerhard Schröder discovered that in order to get laws like his tax reform package through the upper house, he had to wheel and deal or risk certain defeat...
...Analysts say that if the cdu fails to hold the government of Baden-Württemberg, not only would its hopes of retaking the Bundesrat be dashed, but its preparations for next year's Germany-wide elections would be hobbled as well. "It would be a catastrophe for the cdu," said Axel Misch, a political science professor at the University of Saarland. "The implication is Merkel would have to resign, and I'm sure there would be major troubles within the party...
Strauss and his fellow Bavarians have been pressing Bonn to build more of these camps to handle the immigrants as they arrive. The camps, built at federal expense, would reduce the financial strain on local governments. Last week the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) instead moved to slow the increasingly burdensome influx of foreigners by passing a tough new set of regulations on asylum applications. Asylum seekers will not be eligible for work permits during their first year in West Germany, nor will family-support payments be made unless asylum has been confirmed. Judicial procedures will be streamlined, so that...
...C.D.U.'s 27-to-23 majority into a 25-to-25 deadlock. At week's end it was still unclear which party would be able to form a state government, but as a result of the election, the Christian Democratic majority of one in Bonn's Bundesrat will probably be wiped...