GERMANY: Germany's general election could be tighter than expected after a new survey showed surprise gains for Chancellor Schröder's Social Democrats (SPD) and losses for the opposition.
With just 10 days to polling day, the SPD has jumped three points in a week to 34 per cent, after Chancellor Schröder emerged the clear winner from Sunday evening's television debate.
The coalition that CDU leader Angela Merkel hopes to build with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) has lost its overall majority, according to the Stern magazine poll conducted by the Forsa polling company.
"It's clear that the SPD was successful in winning back some undecided SPD voters after Gerhard Schröder made a good impression in the TV debate," said Manfred Güllner, managing director of Forsa.
"If this development stabilises then it may get tight" for the opposition's coalition plans, he said.
The new poll shows that the current SPD-Green coalition at 41 per cent; in conjunction with the new Left Party, the government attracts 49 per cent support, one point higher than the CDU-FDP alternative.
Dr Merkel cranked up her attacks on Mr Schröder in a final round of speeches to the Bundestag in Berlin yesterday.
The chancellor was "yesterday's man", she said, calling it a "mockery" for him to tour Germany telling people that his seven years in power had been seven good years.
"They were seven years of empty promises, of following the wrong policies, or of not seeing things through," she said. "That's why you're finished."
Mr Schröder said his reforms were "starting to work" and outlined an eight-point plan for a third term, including corporate tax cuts, a wealth tax and a pruning of bureaucracy.
He also accused international oil companies of profiteering from natural disasters, saying the drop in US oil refinery capacity after Hurricane Katrina had only a marginal effect on fuel supply and couldn't fully explain the rising fuel prices. "Some 20 to 30 dollars (per barrel) is pure speculation," said Mr Schröder, adding that Germany's cartel office might have to investigate prices.
"Oil concerns are using this situation to drive up prices in a totally irresponsible manner," Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, head of the Green Party election campaign, claimed. He accused the CDU of hiding from voters its true plan to dismantle the welfare state.
"That is a cold-hearted society that you want and that is the opposite of what we want," he said.