Edmund Stoiber

Edmund Stoiber J.D. (born September 28, 1941) is a German politician, currently minister-president of the state of Bavaria and chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Chancellor candidacy

In 2002, Stoiber became the chancellor candidate for the CDU/CSU after politically out-maneuvering the leader of the CDU, Angela Merkel, who had been the favoured option among the German populace but was unpopular within her own party.

Related Topics:
CDU - CSU - Angela Merkel

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In the run up to the 2002 election the CSU/CDU held a huge lead in the opinion polls and Stoiber famously remarked that "...this is like a football match where it's the second half and my team is ahead by 2-0." However, on election day things had changed. The SPD had mounted a huge comeback, the CDU/CSU was narrowly defeated(though both the SPD and CDU/CSU had 38.4% of the vote, the SPD was ahead by a small 6,000 vote margin), and Gerhard Schröder was re-elected as chancellor by the parliament in a coalition with the Green Party of Germany. Many commentators fault Stoiber's mishandling of the floods in eastern Germany, in the run-up to the election, as a contributory factor in his party's poor electoral result and defeat. In addition, Schroeder distinguished himself from his opponent by taking an active stance against support for the US-led Iraq War. His extensive campaigning on this stance was widely seen as swinging the election to the SPD in the weeks running up to the election.

Related Topics:
Football - SPD - Gerhard Schröder - Green Party of Germany

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