GERMANY: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder traded insults with his conservative challenger in the forthcoming election in a newspaper debate yesterday, opening what will be a bitter and toughly-fought campaign.
With less than 80 days to polling day, the ruling Social Democrats have staged a comeback and are now trailing the conservatives by just four per cent.
Mr Edmund Stoiber, the prime minister of Bavaria and the conservatives' chancellor hopeful, called Mr Schröder "a bit of an actor" who "promises a lot but delivers little". The Chancellor labelled his rival a "careerist".
Mr Schröder once remarked that when he has anything important to say, he says it to Germany's mass-circulation newspaper Bild or "the goggle box".
Yesterday's debate in Bild am Sonntag will be followed by two television debates which the media-savvy Chancellor hopes will transfer some of his personal popularity to his party.
"Whoever wants me to remain Chancellor, and I am pleased to see there are a considerable number of people in Germany, will have to vote SPD. There is a connection between people and the party, which affects the electoral success," he said in the debate.
Unhappily for Mr Schröder, however, the current economic recession and the four million unemployed will be uppermost in voters' minds when they go to the polls. Voters find Mr Stoiber less likeable but more trustworthy on economic matters, based on his success as prime minister of Bavaria, where the economy is strong and unemployment is half the national average.
"Mr Schröder hasn't kept his central promise to reduce unemployment under 3.5 million," said Mr Stoiber in the debate, reopening his favourite old wound. "He promised this many times and also made clear that if he didn't achieve that, he hadn't earned the right to be re-elected."
Voters have reacted positively to a government commission on unemployment. Mr Stoiber said its proposals mirror "suggestions that we have made for a long time but were always vetoed by the SPD".
Mr Schröder attacked Mr Stoiber's plans to reduce tax and social contributions to under 40 per cent of take-home pay. That would leave a €170 billion hole in public finances, he said, just as Germany battles to balance its budget in line with EU guidelines.
Asked what effect a new conservative government would have on the German economy, Mr Schröder replied: "German business is stable enough on world markets to survive Mr Stoiber."
The newspaper debate, published three days after it took place, appeared to be a warm-up for the real contests closer to the September 22nd election.
The candidates will hold two televised Sunday evening debates, one on August 25th for commercial broadcasters, the other for state-owned channels on September 8th.
The 58-year-old chancellor is widely regarded as the more telegenic, but Mr Stoiber is taller and could look more commanding on television since both men will stand.
