Hurricane Schroeder

Germany | Creating a storm of anti-Americanism, the newly reelected German chancellor must now ride out his rift with the Bush administration—and with his own party | Mindy Belz

GERMAN VOTERS APPARENTLY PAID no mind to the old Clinton/Carville saw about elections being all about "the economy, stupid." With one of Europe's highest unemployment rates—currently stuck at 10 percent—the German electorate could have voted in a candidate who lowered Bavaria's unemployment rate to almost half the national average. Instead, they chose to stay the course, handing Gerhard Schroeder a second four-year mandate in national elections on Sept. 22. He narrowly defeated his demonstrably competent rival, Edmund Stoiber, to form a coalition government with the once-fringe Green Party.

But this was not an election that turned on competence. Mr. Schroeder capitalized on a natural disaster—devastating summer floods in eastern Germany—along with a manmade storm over U.S. plans to go to war with Iraq.