GERMANY: German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder yesterday insisted on his opposition to war with Iraq, as new polls showed the tactic was helping him pull ahead of the conservative opposition nine days before the general election.
Mr Schröder said he was glad that US President Bush had said he would work with the UN to disarm Iraq, but he reiterated his concerns about the risks of a war.
"My arguments against a military intervention remain, and that is why, under my leadership, Germany will not take part in a military intervention," Mr Schröder told parliament in a debate.
Dogged by high unemployment and a sluggish economy, Mr Schröder's Social Democrats had lagged behind the opposition in polls all year until the Chancellor's firm handling of devastating floods last month sparked a revival in the party's fortunes.
In a country where memories of the devastation of the second World War still run deep, Mr Schröder's refusal to involve German troops in any war with Iraq has reinforced his dramatic comeback, and new polls yesterday suggested he was on course for victory.
The last survey by the Electoral Research Group before the vote showed Mr Schröder's SPD up two points to 40 per cent, while the opposition conservative Christian Democrats fell one point, to 37 per cent.
The Greens, the SPD's junior partners, were steady on 7 per cent, while the liberal Free Democrats, traditional partners of the Christian Democrats, slipped half a point to 7.5 per cent.
If, as the poll predicts, the reformed Communist Party of Democratic Socialists fails to get the 5 per cent needed to enter parliament, the SPD would have a workable majority.
A second new poll released yesterday by Infratest Dimap showed the SPD rising half a point to 38.5 per cent, while the conservatives slumped 3.5 points, to 36 per cent.
A third poll, by the Forsa Institute, showed the SPD gaining one point from last week to 40 per cent, while the conservatives slipped one point to 38 per cent.
Mr Dieter Roth from the Electoral Research Group said Mr Schröder's chances were good but the vote was still open.
"If you take the margin of error in the polls seriously then nothing is decided yet. It is more likely that the SPD will be the strongest party, but there is no certainty."
Mr Schröder's main challenger for the job of chancellor, Christian Democrat Mr Edmond Stoiber, said all German politicians were committed to peace, given the country's 20th-century history.
He accused Mr Schröder of trying to cover up economic woes by warning of the danger of war with Iraq.
Mr Stoiber said the world must stand together to exert pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. And he accused Mr Schröder of playing with "anti-Americanism", saying one of his priorities if he won would be repairing ties with Washington. "Nobody should play politics with people's fears," he told parliament.
Mr Stoiber, who has until now largely avoided playing on fears of immigration in the campaign to moderate his hardline image, also warned that another term for Mr Schröder's Social Democrats and their Green partners would mean more foreigners in Germany.
"Another four years of Red-Green would mean more immigration . . . that is irresponsible in a country with four million unemployed."
Mr Schröder's government offered yesterday to help save telecoms operator MobilCom, faced with collapse after it was abandoned by its indebted partner France Telecom, threatening more than 5,000 jobs in Germany.
Mr Schröder admitted that he had failed to cut unemployment to 3.5 million as he promised four years ago, but said that was largely the result of the global economic slump since the September 11th attacks last year.
He said unemployment was much lower now than during the 16-year reign of former chancellor Helmut Kohl, and he attacked conservative plans to make the labour market more flexible, saying undermining workers' rights would hurt the economy.
Clearly revelling in his poll revival, Mr Schröder called Mr Stoiber's speech "a mixture of helplessness and aggressiveness".- (Reuters)