Stoiber rests his poll hopes on economic woes

On his last provincial campaign stop before the German election on Sunday, Edmund Stoiber warned that Germans could face the same queues for hip operations and other routine treatment as Britons do, unless the country drastically improved its economic growth rate. "We can afford only what we can afford," he told his last rally in the former East Germany, "unless we sharply increase economic growth."

Returning to theme of economic competitiveness that formed the core of his early campaign, Mr Stoiber said that Germany's high unemployment, low productivity and falling educational standards placed it "more on a par with Portugal or Greece than Sweden, Finland or England." He accused Chancellor Gerhard Schröder not only of failing to fulfil his promise to reduce unemployment below 4 million, but of not delivering on his commitment to make the rebuilding of former East Germany a priority of his chancellorship.

He was addressing a restless crowd in Schwerin, capital of the poorest of the former East German states, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern, in a final effort to increase his vote in the north and east. Although he was accompanied by Angela Merkel, leader of the CDU in his CSU/CDU alliance, who is a native of this region and is generally well-liked here, he was heckled and whistled , even when he broached the usually sure-fire theme of immigration.

Even his pledge to seek the deportation of 4,000 Islamic fundamentalists who, he said, were committed to violence, was comprehensively booed. He said 30,000 Islamic fundamentalists were resident in Germany – "the most foreign-friendly land in Europe" – of whom 4,000 would not flinch from using violence. The government, he said, had to be able to deport such people

Analysis, page 19,

Leading article, page 20