Schröder, Merkel Hit the Campaign Trail

Germany's conservative leadership came together in Berlin on plan their remaining election strategy. Shifts in voter sentiment and a growing realization that millions of Germans will wait until the last minute to decide who to vote for has added pressure on a faltering campaign that, until recently, looked like a cakewalk for Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chief Angela Merkel.

Despite recent polls which put the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) about 14 points clear of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats, the CDU/CSU ticket is looking a less attractive option to many, mainly due to a number of high profile gaffes over the past few weeks.

Merkel was subjected to the first real criticism of the campaign for confusing "gross" and "net" wages in a television interview last week and then had to publicly rebuke one of her party members for insensitive remarks alluding to poor social and moral standards in the east of Germany in the wake of the "dead babies" case that came to light soon after.

New approach and campaign team

In a bid to get the CDU/CSU show back on the road, Merkel, CSU chief Edmund Stoiber and CDU state premiers Christian Wulff and Roland Koch will convene in the capital to reassess the campaign strategy and formulate damage limitation plans as the run-in to the election heads for its final month.

The meeting is also likely to include discussions on who should be part of Merkel's "competence team" for the last push towards polling day. According to a report in Die Welt, at least two CSU politicians are likely to be named in the new campaign team; Bavarian Minister of the Interior Günther Beckstein and vice-chairperson of the union faction in the Bundestag, Gerda Hasselfeldt.

After the meeting, Merkel is to begin her campaign tour with the first of an estimated 40 rallies, beginning on Wednesday afternoon in Essen and Cologne in the recently captured former-SPD strong hold state of North-Rhine Westphalia.

Angie on Tour

Conservative party officials revealed that Merkel's election campaign will end on September 16 -- two days before polling day -- in the Berlin Tempodrom. Highlights of her tour are expected to be the CDU Party Congress in Dortmund on August 28 and the CSU equivalent on September 2-3. The following day, Merkel takes on Schröder in the only televised debate of the campaign.

Schröder himself will have a better idea by then how much the fallout from the recent mistakes and pitfalls experienced by his opponent will have helped his own campaign.

The chancellor has apparently smelled blood and appeared invigorated for the upcoming fight in a recent television interview on Bayerisches Fernsehen. "I think of everything except quitting," he told interviewer Sigmund Gottlieb. "I intensely believe that I can continue to lead the country further in its course."

Schröder places trust in the voters

When questioned about the election chances of his SPD-Green party coalition, Schröder confidently put his trust in the German people to recognize his efforts in pushing for painful reforms: "In the end, the people will go to the polling booths and consider who has shown the most courage."

The chancellor dismissed the increasingly popular discussion of a grand coalition of the CDU and SPD. "We should talk not about coalitions but work on making the SPD the strongest party," Schröder said.

He was equally dismissive of the new Left Party, the combination of the PDS, the former East German communist party and former SPD leftist rebels. "This is just the PDS fortified by those people who have fled from irresponsibility," he said. "We should not trust those who would disable Germany's foreign policy and would demand too much on the domestic front."

SPD goes on the offensive

Schröder's combative style reflects the SPD's campaign plans which would include spending 32 million euros on its 40-day tour of Germany in a bid to make the most of recent gains on the CDU.

SPD campaign manager Kajo Wasserhoevel announced on Tuesday that the Social Democrats would attempt to capitalize on the recent CDU blunders which he said had given the SPD a "tailwind".

"We're going to turn the spotlight on Merkel," he said, showing journalists at a press conference in Berlin new posters mocking Merkel's tax increase plans and raising doubts about her abilities.

Wasserhoevel added that he expected the trend of voters being turned off by the CDU's candidate for chancellor to continue as the public take their first close look at Merkel in the light of the recent adverse publicity.

He also said that a growing trend for Germans to decide at the last minute was filling the SPD with confidence. "The number of voters who don't make their decision until the last 14 days is getting larger and larger," he said. "There's an enormous potential there and we've got to have the stamina to court them right up until election day."