Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has been nominated for the 2005 Nobel Prize for Peace for his opposition to the US-led preemptive invasion of Iraq. The nomination was heralded by another Nobel Prize Winner from Germany:
Nobel literature laureate Guenter Grass of Germany, who won the 1999 literature prize, said Monday that he considered Schroeder a candidate for the peace prize over his opposition to allowing Germany to participate in the U.S. led attack on Iraq.
While members of the opposition parties criticized the move as nothing more than a cynical campaign tactic, the nomination actually took place last February, long before the special early elections were even considered. Also, the prize will not be awarded until November – long after the election. Of course, Schröder is one of nearly 200 nominees that also include Colin Powell, who presented false information to the UN and the world in making the case for a pre-emptive war against Iraq. Last year both President Bush and Tony Blair were nominated the the Nobel Peace Prize for waging war against a country that posed no military threat to either the US or Britain.
Does Schröder have a chance to win a Nobel Prize? Well, stranger things have happened.
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Just one party leader congratulated Schroeder on the nomination: Lothar Bisky, chair of the Left Party. He told the Maerkische Allgemeine: “Ja, er hat den Preis verdient”, sagte Bisky der MAZ. Schröder habe “etwas Großes gemacht. Er hat Deutschland vom Irak-Krieg ferngehalten. Das sollte man würdigen.”
I guess he was such a success in stopping the war, delaying it to give the Makhabarat a change to bury more mines, then he certainly deserves what’s left of the repututaion of the Nobel peace prize.
We are after all talking about the only meaningful thing left in European though – symbolism taking place of action.