People's favourite selected to fight Kohl

THE MOST POPULAR politician in Germany was yesterday selected as the Social Democrat Party's candidate against Helmut Kohl in the federal elections in September.

On the eve of his party's formal nomination, Gerhard Schroder, 53, prime minister of Lower Saxony, passed the penultimate electoral test with flying colours. According to projections based on exit polls, his party won 47 per cent of the votes in yesterday's elections to the Hanover assembly, a gain of nearly 3 per cent.

It is the third time Mr Schroder has led the Social Democrats to victory in Germany's fourth most populous Land; each time with an improved score. In national polls, he is rated twice as popular as Chancellor Kohl.

It would be premature to discount Mr Kohl so early in the race. The exit polls showed the Christian Democrats had also improved on their result of four years ago, scoring about 38 per cent, up nearly 2 per cent.

For an election of such importance, the campaign was remarkable for its paucity of themes. In the shadow of Germany's record unemployment, nudging 5 million this month, the leading candidates wanted to talk of but one issue: joblessness.

Mr Schroder's rallies were festooned with slogans lambasting the government's poor record on jobs; stairways leading to the halls where the faithful gathered were plastered over with graphics illustrating the inexorable rise of unemployment in the 15 years of Kohl government.

In his speeches, Mr Schroder attacked the "laissez-faire" economics of Bonn, contrasting it with his own brand of interventionism. Earlier this year, he sank more than DM1bn (pounds 330m) of tax-payers' money into a local steelworks, snatching it from a perfectly respectable Austrian suitor. It was to ensure that decisions about local jobs were made locally, Mr Schroder argued, and he pledged to restructure the company and eventually re-privatise it.

Critics suspected a cynical ploy, however, motivated by short-term political concerns. "Schroder saves jobs that aren't in any way in danger," said Christian Wulff, his Christian Democrat opponent. But the takeover appears to have served its purpose, polishing Mr Schroder's image as a hands- on manager who will go to any length to keep jobs at home.

Mr Wulff tried to counter the Keynesian argument by pointing out Lower Saxony's high indebtedness and poor employment record. But his campaign was on the defensive, because of the general feeling that Mr Kohl's lacklustre performance in Bonn was partly to blame for the country's economic malaise. His own prescriptions he could not advertise, for fear of offending his party bosses.

"My position is clear," he told journalists. "We are doing too little." When he was pinned down on specifics, Mr Wulff sounded more like his opponent than his mentor, Mr Kohl. The 38-year-old lawyer praised Tony Blair and the Dutch employment model, and gritted his teeth when asked to appraise Mr Kohl's economic achievement.

A superb organiser who rebuilt the party apparatus of his region after its first stunning defeat eight years ago, Mr Wulff has set his sights on the Chancellery, and is set to become a key player when the curtains finally fall on the Kohl era.