What If: Schroeder stays elected.

[Chingo360]

What if Schroeder never passed the "vertrauensfrage" and stayed as German Chancellor?

[minionofmidas]

Hmmm... I'll think about it.

[minionofmidas]

Just so I don't forget: The SnA, RhP and BW state elections would have gone before the next federals.

[minionofmidas]

Would the PDS-WASG merger have happened?

[minionofmidas]

I tend to think that
- the PDS-WASG merger would not have happened, although the PDS would have returned to Parliament in 2006 anyways, with the WASG never really escaping from obscurity. Lafontaine would have joined the PDS some months before the 2006 federals, and been elected to parliament
- with the economy looking up, Red-Green might have squeezed through a bare and unexpected win in 2006, and the SPD would definitely have come in ahead of the Union
- with disillusionment abut the coalition so high among many of its leading members, any renewed Red-Green government would have been even more lacklustre than the one before, likely paving the way for a Union-FDP win in 2010. Fischer might actually have retired in '06 anyways.
- If there's no red-green majority but the SPD is the strongest party, Schröder would have stayed on as chancellor of a Grand Coalition
- No idea what happens in those state elections, except that the SPD does not win a majority of its own in Rheinland-Pfalz.