Germany's Ruling Party Launches All-round Election Campaign

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 05, 2002

Germany's Ruling Party Launches All-round Election Campaign

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"The goal of my work? To ensure that all people have work," says German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder ina full-page campaign advertisement on Bild, marking a start of a all-round election campaign by his ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Stubbornly high unemployment, which local reports said could have surpassed the four-million mark in July and reached a four-year high,remains the biggest headache for Schroeder on his way toseek another four-year term.

The mass-circulation "Bild" newspaper offered a whole page in its Sunday issue for the campaign advertisement of the SPD led by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. A photograph published showed that the leader sits at his desk in the chancellery, reading a documentwith rapt attention.

A latest poll said that the SPD is still lagging behind the opposition Union Party some 50 days before the September 22 general elections. The SPD gained 35 percent of support in the poll conducted by the Infratest-dimap institution released on Friday, while the opposition Union Party led by chancellor candidate Edmund Stoiber acquired 40 percent.

Amid bad poll records, the governing party has decided to move up the beginning time of a so-called "hot phase" of its election campaign in three weeks to regain an advantage over the opposition.

On the coming Monday, the party will open the "hot phase" with a big gathering in the northern city of Hannover where Schroeder'shome is located. The party's election campaign truck, weighing 20 tons and having a 44-square-meter stage, will also be on road fromMonday.

A total of 48 big gatherings will be held nationwide by the SPDbefore Sept. 22, the party said.

At present, the most populous North-Rhine Westphalia state where the world-known industrial Ruhr Region is located, is decisive in the election campaign, said SPD election campaign manager Peter Glotz.

"What counts is to mobilize the SPD regular voters in the statewhere one-fifth of people entitled to vote come from," he noted, adding that Stoiber has less chances here than Schroeder.

Of all the SPD campaign gatherings, 11 will take place in North-Rhine Westphalia, according to Bild.

Besides, the party will also probably enhance its campaign budget from planned 25.3 million euros (some 25 million US dollars), the paper said.

Local media said that the Schroeder government has also launched campaign against the opposition in foreign and security policies. Both Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned on Saturday of possible US military attack on Iraq, callingfor a comprehensive solution to the Middle East crisis.

Schroeder warned of "talking about or merely considering a war against Iraq without thinking of the consequences and without a political conception for the whole Middle East."

Schroeder's words were immediately responded by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, saying "For me, it is a false assessmentof priorities to say that a governmental change in Baghdad must berealized with military intervention."

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