IT WAS a day of argument in Germany. In schoolyards and office canteens, Germans squabbled over whether Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, or Angela Merkel, his conservative rival, had come out victorious after a television duel that captured the attention of a 21million audience.

The fiercest rows were between women. Both politicians were aware that the bulk of the undecided voters — still more than 30 per cent with the elections on Sunday week — were women. Many are torn between an aspiring woman leader with old-fashioned advisers and the four-times-married Chancellor, who has committed himself to easing the conditions of working mothers.

“I thought this duel would clarify things,” Bettina Lutz, 27, a public relations expert, said. “Instead it just seems to have muddied the waters.”

The two rivals barely touched on one question close to women’s hearts — expanding the school system so children are not sent home at one or two in the afternoon. It was one of many deficits: the problems of eastern Germany were not discussed; foreign policy was mentioned only in passing.

Frau Merkel said during the debate: “We need people with new ideas if Germany is to remain a global competitor.”

During a discussion about welfare benefits, the Chancellor said: “For people that are in trouble we don’t need a weak state we need a strong state.”

On the question of Turkey entering the EU, Frau Merkel said: “It would be very irresponsible to give Turkey the promise of full membership and then at a later date not be in a position to fulfil that promise.”

Herr Schröder responded: “You don’t understand the political importance of bringing Turkey into the EU.”

The contest was focused for the most part on the details of tax reform. About 70 per cent of the audience said that they believed Herr Schröder had emerged the winner. This may have been an emotional rather than a politically informed judgment — the Chancellor knows after a lifetime in politics how to transmit a sense of warmth. But a broad majority of pundits said that Frau Merkel came out ahead. She had shown herself to be tough; some even detected a trace of Margaret Thatcher.

Herr Schröder is still the underdog. Hours before the duel on Sunday night his Social Democrat-Green coalition was 12 points behind the Christian Democrats and Free Democrats. The best that he can hope for is to aim his guns at the supposedly secret neoconservative agenda of Frau Merkel.

So he has ordered his troops to take aim at the man she has earmarked as her finance minister: the constitutional lawyer and tax reformer Paul Kirchhof. Herr Kirchhof wants to impose a flat-rate tax and the Chancellor has denounced that as anti-social — punishing the lower paid — and undignified, treating “all Germans as if they were laboratory guinea-pigs ”.

But it is Herr Kirchhof’s conservative views of the family that pose the biggest threat to Frau Merkel. Herr Kirchhof has said that family happiness involves the mother “pursuing a career in the family which does not offer power but friendship, not money but happiness”.

He told foreign reporters yesterday: “I have two daughters and two daughters-in-law, all of whom have children and jobs.” He had helped them to combine the two. “I’m being deliberately misunderstood.”

MERKEL V SCHRÖDER: THE JURY IS OUT

“There was no surprise winner in this debate, moderated with sterile thoroughness . . . For Angela Merkel, everything that’s not a glaring defeat is at least a perceived tie.”
Nikolaus Blome, Die Welt newspaper

“The allegedly not-so-telegenic Merkel was brilliantly prepared. Schröder seemed, surprisingly, more down to earth. His advantage isn’t so great that it will decide the election — and that’s good for Germany.”
Giovanni di Lorenzo, Editor, Die Zeit

“I’m not going to watch something like this again — I’d rather go eat a currywurst.”
Hans-Hermann Tiedje, former Editor, Bild

“Merkel was the clear surprise winner; 90 minutes of offensive and competent combative talk. By contrast Schröder was as active as if he was paralysed — yesterday’s man brilliantly robbed of his magic by Angela Merkel.”
Hans-Ulrich Jörges, chief political commentator, Stern magazine

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