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Germany set for cliffhanger poll
BERLIN, Germany -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative rival Edmund Stoiber have wrapped up their elections campaigns ahead of Sunday's hotly contested vote. Schroeder used his last campaign rally on Saturday to reinforce his opposition to a U.S. war in Iraq, which has dominated campaigning in the run-up to the polls. Comments by his justice minister -- likening George W. Bush's stance on Iraq to Hitler's use of foreign policy to hide domestic woes -- overshadowed the final day before the election. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sought to defuse tensions with a conciliatory letter to the U.S. president, but Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said U.S-German relations had been "poisoned." Daeubler-Gmelin, although she has denied the alleged remarks about Bush, is still facing calls to resign.
However CNN European Political Editor Robin Oakley said without tape recordings it was doubtful it would ever be proved conclusively whether Daeubler-Gmelin's account or the newspaper Schwaebisches Tagblatt's story was correct. He added that while Schroeder has so far supported his minister, it would be interesting to see if she keeps her job should his Social Democrats remain in power after Sunday's vote. The row over relations with Washington sidelined other election issues such as high unemployment and the state of Europe's largest economy. "The government has completely isolated Germany through its foreign policy," conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber said at his last rally in Munich. "We are an open-minded country with internationally oriented industry. We can not afford to have economic relations damaged by such incredible (remarks)," he added. "The damage to us and to the German-American relationship is such that this not only hurts us and does not only affect politics but also the American people and the American economy." The prospect of a U.S.-led war on Iraq has coloured much of the election debate. Stoiber has accused Schroeder of damaging U.S.-German relations by flatly opposing German involvement in any war. (Full story) But Schroeder's stance has been popular with voters -- turning from the prospect of certain defeat to a cliffhanger election. (Full story) Stoiber has failed this week to turn the focus back to domestic issues like immigration and the economy, generally seen as his strength given his success in managing his wealthy home state. (Full story) Schroeder repeated some of his favourite campaign lines on the subject on Saturday, Reuters news agency reported. "The Middle East and Iraq need a lot of new peace, but they don't need a new war," Schroeder said to cheers from a 5,000-strong crowd in the centre of the northern city of Rostock. He said Germany had every right to be self-confident in its international policy given that it had showed its readiness to take part in front-line action for peace. "Fundamental issues of German policy will be decided in Berlin and nowhere else," he said. Stoiber attended the opening of Munich's Oktoberfest beer festival in his role as premier of the wealthy southern state of Bavaria. Dressed in a traditional Bavarian felt jacket, Stoiber arrived to loud chants of "Eddy, Eddy" and took the first litre from Munich's SPD Mayor Christian Ude. "I hope to come back next year and have a beer poured for me as chancellor," Stoiber said. With the vote so close, the standing of smaller parties is crucial. Schroeder wants to continue his alliance with the Greens, while Stoiber, if he wins, will almost certainly renew a coalition with the tax-cutting Free Democrats (FDP). But much depends on whether the Party of Democratic Socialism, heirs to the former East German Communist Party that built the Berlin Wall, manages to get back into parliament. If it does, the two big parties could be forced into a grand coalition with each other. Schroeder's Social Democrats hold a narrow lead over the conservative CDU-CSU opposition, according to a poll by the Forsa institute released on Friday. The poll of 2,021 voters for RTL television found the SPD would win between 38.5 and 39.5 percent, down from 40 percent a week ago. The conservatives of challenger Edmund Stoiber stood on 37-38 percent compared to 38 percent a week ago. The Greens, the SPD's junior coalition partners, were projected to win 6.5-7.5 percent, compared with 7 percent last week. The Free Democrats were down slightly at 7-8 percent after polling 8 percent a week ago. The survey has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, meaning the outcome of Sunday's election is too close to call.
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