DOWN TO THE WIRE IN GERMANY
LAST-MINUTE CAMPAIGNING
BERLIN • As Germany’s tightest election race in four decades came down to a nail-biting close, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative challenger Angela Merkel staged rival showpiece rallies yesterday, and pledged to campaign to the last possible moment.
Ms. Merkel, who hopes to become Germany’s first woman chancellor, told supporters of her Christian Democratic Union that Germans had “lost confidence” in Mr. Schroeder and his Social Democratic Party ( SPD).
“He announced he would create two million jobs but what do we have now? One and a half million fewer people in work,” she told party faithful gathered in a giant circus tent in Berlin, using figures contested by the SPD.
In an almost simultaneous speech in the more elegant surroundings of Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt square, Mr. Schroeder warned a victory for Ms. Merkel would destroy the country’s “social solidarity.”
His voice cracking after more than 100 campaign rallies, the Chancellor said Ms. Merkel was “willing but not able” to lead the country and only he could solve its deep-seated economic problems without harming vulnerable members of society.
Three months ago, Ms. Merkel held a commanding lead of 23 points over the SPD, but the gap has dwindled away to almost nothing, leaving her dreams of leading a conservative coalition government on a knife edge.
A poll released yesterday by the Forsa institute showed support for Ms. Merkel’s conservative coalition at between 48% and 51%, while the combined support for Mr. Schroeder’s SPD and two allied parties was between 45% and 49%.
The narrowness of the gap suggested Ms. Merkel might be forced into a “grand coalition” with Mr. Schroeder’s Social Democrats, a situation that could cause a stalemate.
Yet the poll also showed that 25% of voters remain undecided, leaving it still unclear whether Ms. Merkel will get the chance to rule.
The race is so close both main parties have broken with tradition and will campaign right up to when polling stations close tomorrow evening.
Despite Mr. Schroeder’s comeback in the polls, most pundits still doubt he will gain enough support for a fresh mandate. The charismatic campaigner, who took over as chancellor from Helmut Kohl in 1998, has said he will not serve as the leader of the junior party in the event of a grand coalition and is likely to quit politics.
The Christian Democrats raced to an early lead in the campaign, but several gaffes and sustained attacks on Ms. Merkel’s shadow finance minister Paul Kirchhof cut sharply into the lead.
Mr. Kirchhof, a former constitutional judge with no political experience, has emerged as the most controversial figure of the election after suggesting a flat income tax rate of 25%, a proposal not included in the Christian Democrats’ manifesto.
Ms. Merkel said yesterday the SPD had attacked Mr. Kirchhof “because they simply do not have any concept for the future. All they can do is attack and spread fear.”
The Christian Democrats have hit back with claims that Mr. Schroeder’s Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, intends to slash 120 billion euros ( US$ 147- billion) from pensions, health and labour market budgets after the election.
The claim has been repeatedly denied by Mr. Schroeder.
The possibility of a “grand coalition” revived memories of a formation tried once before in Germany, from 1966- 69, when a conservative chancellor, KurtGeorg Kiesinger, headed a government that included the leftwing SPD for the first time since the Second World War.
Mr. Kiesinger, a former member of the Nazi party and a government official during the war, made a strange match with SPD leader Willy Brandt, a socialist militant born as Herbert Frahm who changed his name while exiled in Norway in the 1930s.
They worked together effectively enough, notably on the economy, pushing through reforms that helped Germany recover from a slump after the post-war boom years.
But the outlook for co-operation is not as bright today, said Gerhard Gruendler, a former journalist for Stern magazine who covered the first grand coalition.
“ The difference was that at that time the main elements on both sides fundamentally wanted the grand coalition. It looks very different this time,” he said.