A politics of principle” “

The elections to the “Bundestag”, the lower chamber of the German Parliament, will be held in Germany on Sunday 18 September. A total of 3,648 candidates will contest the 603 seats of the Bundestag, representing the 34 parties admitted by the electoral commission for the ballot. Competing for the post of Chancellor will be the out-going Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder (SPD) and the challenger, the Christian Democrat Angela Merkel (CDU). The over 60 million electors can vote for one of the parties that already sit in Parliament, SPD (Social Democrats), CDU (Christian-Democratic Union), CSU (Christian-Social Union), Greens, Liberals, Party of the Left (the reborn alliance between the post-communists of the PDS – Party of German Democratic Socialism – and the new electoral initiative for work and social justice (WASG), DVU (Union of the German People), NPD (German National Democratic Party) and a further 26 “minor” parties. The election, called one year ahead of the natural end of the legislature, was requested by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, but two MPs of the ruling red-green coalition had raised doubts about its constitutionality. The Constitutional Court, in a ruling issued on 25 August, however, gave the go ahead to the snap elections. It is in fact the fourth time in the history of post-war Germany that the general elections have been held early. The last time was in 1990, immediately after the reunification of the Federal Republic and the Democratic Republic. We publish below a résumé of the letter that the German bishops have written to the nation in view of the elections. The letter was read out in all German parishes at the end of mass on Sunday 4 September. SOCIAL STATE. Fight against unemployment, support of maternity and defence of the family based on marriage, rejection of abortion and euthanasia, defence of the human embryo: these are some of the “indications” that the German bishops give to their fellow-citizens in the run-up to the vote. “Our country – declare the bishops – has a need for politicians able to look beyond petty politics and be inspired in their decisions by principles that respond to the image of man dictated by our Constitution”. On this basis, the German episcopate lists a series of “challenges” that are “important for the future of our country”. The first is that of stimulating employment because – write the bishops – “it is intolerable that there are almost five million unemployed in our country”. The request for a social state “renewed through a policy able to look to the future”, and especially able to ensure “solidarity for the weak”, also forms part of this context. FAMILY. The falling birth rate is a matter of deep concern to the German episcopate: it is – they say – “a fundamental problem for our future” and one that “immigration does not solve”. “It is a phenomenon we have been aware of for decades – write the bishops – but nothing so far has been done. Our politicians can tergiversate no longer. Germany has a need for a society that welcomes children with joy”. The German Church appeals to politicians to “provide even greater protection to the family based on marriage”, in response to the calls for “forms of alternative life” to be equated with marriage and the family. “We need – write the bishops – a policy to promote and enhance marriage and the family”. PRO-LIFE. In another passage of their letter the bishops forcibly emphasise the importance of the defence of life. “It is the duty of politicians – says the letter – to ensure this defence, irrespective of whether the persons in question are rich or poor, healthy or sick, born or not yet born. This also goes for genetics and biomedicine: abortion, euthanasia and “increasingly condoned” acts against the human embryo cannot and must not be tolerated”. INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY. The letter ends by recalling Germany’s responsibility to Europe and the world. “We must not forget that Germany is a country in which prosperity exists, and that’s why she must assume her responsibilities for others, This is indispensable for the creation of a social Europe, for the defence of universal justice and to respond to the needs of all those living in need in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Germany must pledge herself to the objectives fixed by the United Nations in terms of the fight against poverty and illiteracy”.