GERMANY’S election reaches a decisive stage tonight with a television debate in which Chancellor Gerhard Schröder will accuse Angela Merkel, his conservative challenger, of being too close to Washington and of having a hidden agenda to undermine the welfare state.
Schröder, whose opposition to the Iraq war helped him to a narrow re-election win in 2002, is expected to play the anti-American card again, depicting Merkel as a closet “neoconservative” like those around President George W Bush.
He may also seek to portray her as a German Margaret Thatcher bent on introducing radical economic reforms that would cut workers’ rights and reduce welfare benefits.
An estimated 20m people — a third of voters — are expected to watch the debate, seen as a last chance for Schröder, a polished television performer, to close his Christian Democrat rival’s commanding double-digit lead in the run-up to voting on September 18.
Preparations for the 90- minute encounter — the candidates’ only one-to-one confrontation of the campaign — have been characterised by wrangling over everything from the position of their podiums to camera angles.
Much of the chancellor’s fire will be directed not at Merkel herself, however, but at Paul Kirchhof, a relatively unknown university professor she wants as her finance minister.
Kirchhof was catapulted to the centre of the campaign in July after making radical proposals to sweep away Germany’s highly complex tax system and replace it with a simple 25% flat tax. Last week, he dropped another bombshell by arguing for the privatisation of Germany’s generous state pension system.
Although applauded by economists, such ideas have alarmed many voters and have been rejected by some senior members of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Merkel has been evasive about whether the ideas, which are not in the party programme, will be implemented if she wins — allowing Schröder to suggest she is not being entirely honest.
“Kirchof is the German arm of the American neocons . . . who were also responsible for the Iraq war,” said Michael Müller, the vice-chairman of Schröder’s Social Democratic party (SDP) last week. “Kirchhof is a byword for the total dismantling of the social state.”
The chancellor gave a foretaste of the tactics he is likely to use in tonight’s debate at a rally in Celle, in his home state of Lower Saxony, on Friday night, when he dismissed Kirchhof as the “Merkel whisperer”.
“We have to fight to keep Merkel and her eccentric professor at bay,” he told an enthusiastic crowd. “She says she wants to try out her ideas — I say, you can’t turn our nation into a laboratory for experimental tests on animals.”
The Schröder camp’s hopes of a post-debate “bounce” have been raised by polls suggesting the SDP, stuck for weeks at around 30%, has risen to 32%, even though the CDU still commands 43%.
The chancellor will take some comfort from the commanding lead in personal popularity he enjoys over Merkel.
“This election will be decided in the last few days of the campaign,” said Peter Struck, the defence minister and confidant of the chancellor, in an interview. “Schröder is better than Merkel and the TV duel will kick-start a new, intense phase in our campaign.”
It emerged last week that Merkel has been coached by Alexander Niemetz, a former television news reader. He is believed to have advised her to slow her machinegun delivery, use softer hand actions and, most importantly, smile but avoid her trademark grin.
“She can’t compete with Schröder’s charm factor and shouldn’t aim to be liked more than him,” said Jürgen Falter, a prominent political commentator. “But the chancellor has nothing to offer but fear of what she’s planning, so she needs to make clear that she’s the only one with answers.”
Although tonight’s clash is the sole “duel” between the candidates, it was announced last week they would share a stage with other party leaders on September 12. The one-to-one debate is seen as their critical encounter, however, and the minutiae of its arrangements were still being hammered out up to the last moment.
Schröder will be asked the first question, but Merkel will have the last word, and two of the four journalists asking the questions will be women.
It has also been agreed the 10 cameras will show the candidates only from the front and side — and not the back. Merkel will be relieved: she has revealed that she is uncomfortable with her “frumpy” figure.
THE UNDECIDED
When Dieter Siebert watches Angela Merkel take on Gerhard Schröder in tonight’s television debate, he will be one of up to 30m voters thought still not to have made up their minds, writes Justin Sparks.
Like many Germans, Siebert, a 59-year-old nurse, is convinced his country needs a new government but fears Merkel might introduce changes that would make life too painful.
“I’m worried she might turn into the German version of Margaret Thatcher,” he said.
Rival candidates should heed the opinions of Siebert and others like him in Celle, a town in Schröder’s home state of Lower Saxony. For the past quarter of a century they have always voted for the winning party.
A panel of undecided voters convened by The Sunday Times suggested many did not know what Merkel stood for.
Sebastian Bierman, 32, a lawyer, was concerned that she would not be able to stand up to more experienced leaders such as Tony Blair. “Whether you like him or not Schröder has the guts to put our interests before Washington,” he said.
But support for Schröder was waning at the Schweine-Schulze, his favourite bar. The landlord said: “He’s one of us and we trust him, but the feeling is that his party is not with him.”
