Germany

Like in 1999, the 2004 European Parliament election in Germany was held against a background of widespread voter discontent with the incumbent federal government, consisting of a coalition between the social democrats (SPD) and the ecologist Greens under the leadership of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.¹ Whereas in 1999, much of the government parties’ poor result could be put down to their uncertain start in offi ce the previous year, following 16 years in opposition to a conservative (CDU/CSU) and liberal (FDP) alliance under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the voters’ ire was on this occasion directed at the government’s attempts to address Germany’s increasing structural economic problems.²