German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder returned to the campaign trail today with a fiery speech in Berlin after four key opinion polls showed his party making a dramatic comeback one month before the election.
Riding a wave of popularity over his steady-handed leadership during a flood crisis, Mr Schroeder saw his Social Democrats (SPD) narrow the conservatives' once commanding advantage of up to seven points to as little as one point.
In the biggest single-week swing recorded by the leading Electoral Research Group pollsters in years, Mr Schroeder's centre-left party jumped two points to 38 per cent while the conservative opposition fell two points to 39 per cent.
In another poll by Emnid, the SPD gained two percentage points to 36 per cent while the conservatives led by Bavarian state premier Mr Edmund Stoiber fell one to 39 per cent.
Mr Schroeder's SPD have trailed Stoiber's alliance of Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Social Union by a steady margin of at least four points for most of the year.
But Mr Schroeder has won considerable praise, especially in the east, for putting his re-election campaign on hold for the last two weeks to lead efforts to help areas devastated by floods that hit the formerly communist region. Mr Stoiber by contrast was caught off guard on holiday when the floods first struck and has struggled ever since to match the telegenic Mr Schroeder in showing his sympathy with victims.
Mr Gero Neugebauer, political scientist at Berlin's Free University, said Mr Schroeder had mastered the floods crisis. "I think the numbers reflect the decisiveness Schroeder has shown," he said. "Crises usually benefit the incumbent."