You may have read of yesterday's elections in Germany (European parliament and several local elections) and that the Social Democrats got the worst result ever after the war. A disastrous result and nobody of them tried the usual 'it is not so bad seen in comparison to...' routine.

But even in the disaster there's always a ray of hope. In the small village of Bollschweil the Social Democrats did lose much less than in the rest of the country. This relative success has one name: Jens Ammoser got much more votes for himself than all others in his party in that little commune.

Jens Ammoser? Wasn't that the man who? Yes, the man who hit chancellor Schröder in the face some weeks ago did candidate for the Social Democrats there. Of course, he was thrown out of the party immediately after boxing the chancellor's ear (well, he only became a member to get the chance to come close to Schröder). But the lists for the elections could not be changed for legal reasons and so Ammoser was a candidate for the Social Democrats.

And he got many many personal votes. Could it be that many people share this man's dream and did vote for him even if runs for the wrong party from their point of view? And think of what in other countries may happen if they read about this original route to electorial success: "Vote for John Simon, your local Labour candidate, the man who spit Tony Blair in the face."

Wolfgang