by Colman
Thu Aug 25th, 2005 at 10:34:58 AM EST
According to RTÉ
Germany's highest court has ruled that next month's scheduled parliamentary elections can go ahead.
The Federal Constitutional Court dismissed a claim that the procedure followed by the Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, to call a national poll a year early was unconstitutional.
I'm sort of disappointed. It would have made for a pretty entertaining crisis if the court had ruled the election was illegal.
Meanwhile, business confidence dipped again in Germany.
German business confidence declined slightly in August, according to a key survey released this morning.
The closely watched business climate index, calculated each month by the Ifo economic research institute, slipped to 94.6 points in August from 95 in July. The figure fell below analysts' consensus forecast of a slight rise to 95.2.
This should help Merkel and company I suppose, though again I missed the memo that explained how businessmen know what is best for the country. Last time I looked they knew only what was good for themselves.