[A-List] Germany: Schröder gaining ground

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Schröder's SPD pulls ahead in German polls
By Bettina Wassener in Berlin
FT.com site: September 13 2002

The extraordinary reversal of the German Social Democrats' electoral
fortunes continued apace on Friday, with a fresh opinion poll showing
the party thre points ahead of the opposition Christian Democrats only
nine days before the country's general elections.

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's SPD has more than eradicated what was an
opposition lead of up to nine percentage points in the last few weeks,
boosted largely by Mr Schröder's opposition to military strikes on
Iraq, as well as his assured handling of last months' flood catastrophe.

A new poll by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen on Friday showed the SPD up two
points at 40 per cent, and the CDU/CSU slipping one point to 37.

The SPD has also benefited from the personal popularity of Mr
Schröder, who is perceived to have done better than his challenger
Edmund Stoiber in last Sunday's live television debate. Friday's
Forschungsgruppe Wahlen poll was the first study by the group since that
debate.

Although voters on September 22 vote for parties rather than the
individual leaders, the two men's personal rating could well affect the
result of what has become an increasingly personalised campaign.

The group's poll also showed the reformed communist PDS at 4.5 per cent
- still below the 5 per cent threshold needed to stay in parliament.
Should the PDS fail to gain 5 per cent, its hopes of gaining any
representation at all hinge on whether it can win in at least three
individual constituencies.