Schroeder warns against complacency over polls lead

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, and Joschka Fischer, foreign minister and leader of the Greens, reaffirmed their commitment to a new "red–green" coalition – and to each other as Chancellor and foreign minister – at a triumphal rally in Berlin last night.

But they urged their supporters to keep up the momentum. With four of five major opinion polls now showing Mr Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SDP) ahead of the centre–right CSU/CDU alliance and the Greens expected to attract more than seven per cent of the vote, party leaders clearly fear that complacency, rather than opposition or apathy could be the greatest obstacle to re–election.

"With the polls as they are, you may think the election is already decided," Mr Schroeder warned – his voice hoarse from all his recent speech–making. "Nothing is decided until the polls close at 6pm next Sunday. We have to work for a convincing victory."

A beaming Mr Fischer, just back from delivering Germany's message of opposition to a war on Iraq at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, rammed the point home – although the breadth of his smile almost belied his warning. Dismissing the roar of the crowd, he said: "You have to keep up all your enthusiasm through next Sunday. You can't celebrate until the polls have closed and victory is assured.

The exultant joint appearance of Mr Schroeder and Mr Fischer at the Brandenburg Gate – under a giant red and green poster emblazoned: "GO ON" – launched the last week of Germany's election campaign in an atmosphere very different from the gloom of six weeks before. Aside from underlining the government's new–found confidence, however, yesterday's rally also had two further purposes.

It conveyed to Gerrmany's still–undecided voters that the SDP was committed to a new coalition with the Greens, and that the Greens were pleased to comply. Such a message was needed, because the waning fortunes of the CDU/CSU have led some leading members of its presumed coalition partner, the right–leaning FDP, to hint at their willingness to ally themselves with the Social Democrats instead. Yesterday's rally clarified Mr Schroeder's preference for a left–leaning coalition. It also gave the Greens a chance to say that a vote for them would not be wasted because they will still be in government after next week.

But Mr Schroeder and Mr Fischer also used their carefully coordinated speeches to shift their message in anticipation of some hard campaigning by Mr Stoiber and his allies in the days that remain. In an interview yesterday, Mr Stoiber said that he had no intention of changing his campaign pitch in the light of his declining poll numbers, but could "augment" it.

The "augmentation", however, is nothing other than playing the "race card". At the end of last week, Mr Stoiber started supplementing his pledges to tackle Germany's "shameful" level of unemployment by saying that there should be no more immigration while Germany had so many people without jobs. He also implied a connection between immigration and terrorism. (The terrorist suspect captured in Pakistan last week is believed to be a member of a cell that operated out of Hamburg.)

In Berlin yesterday, Mr Schroeder yanked the political argument back to the economy – until now seen as his weakest suit – promising an energetic assault on unemployment if he was reelected. "To the Stoibers and others of this world, I say this: We don't need your advice, nor your warnings or threats. No government sets out to increase unemployment."

He also issued an impassioned plea to German voters to use the election to show their rejection of racism. "We must demonstrate," he said, "that the face of our country's future, the face of Europe's future, is the face of tolerance."