Angela Merkel’s hopes of sweeping to victory as Germany’s first woman chancellor are being threatened by a new party.
Opinion polls reveal that the Left Party — launched recently by former communists and renegade Social Democrats — is already in third place, and its support base appears to be growing. Analysts say the joint leader of the party, Oskar Lafontaine, a leftwing icon and former Social Democrat minister, is connecting with the voters by ”putting his fingers into many open wounds’’.
Lafontaine is accused of having far-right tendencies after stating that foreign workers were taking German jobs.
But with 4,7-million unemployed, failed health reforms and swollen budget deficits, many Germans support the new party’s manifesto, which includes proposals to abolish social reforms, raising the minimum wage and taxing the rich.
Allegations erupted in German newspapers last weekend that members of the Social Democrats (SPD) were flirting with the Left Party, further undermining Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
An opinion poll published this week in the German magazine Der Spiegel puts the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) at 42%, the governing SPD at 27%, the new Left Party at 12% and the Green Party at 9%.
If the trend continues, and CDU leader Merkel fails to secure a large enough majority, it is likely that she will have to join forces with the SPD to lead the government as part of a large coalition.
Even in East Germany, where Merkel was born, 30% of the electorate is planning to vote for the Left Party, compared with 29% for the CDU.
In political circles, criticism of Lafontaine is rife, with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer comparing his language with that of Austria’s right-wing Jorg Haider, and the leader of the SPD party in Brandenburg, Karl Ness, accusing him of being a ”preacher of hatred’’.
Merkel, however, has not stooped to such criticism, and has only one concern: ”I want to be the chancellor of the whole of Germany,’’ she told Der Spiegel.
Her biographer, Wolfgang Stock, claims the 51-year-old former physicist does not feel threatened by the Left party. Stock, whose book Angela Merkel — A Political Biography, is being published this week in Germany, said: ”Ms Merkel does not allow herself to suffer from fear.
”As a scientist, she analyses situations and finds the correct way to move forward.
”And anyway, how could anybody be afraid of a party which offers such unrealistic proposals?’’
But conservative politician Peter Gauweiler has admitted that the Left Party — run jointly by Gregor Gysi, former head of the post- communist Party of Democratic Socialism — is causing anxiety across the two main parties.
Gauweiler told German television that Lafontaine had ”put his finger into many open wounds’’.
”The points he makes are things which the Christian Democrats will also have to address,’’ he said.
Elections are expected to take place in September following President Horst Kohler’s announcement last week that he would dissolve Parliament.
Kohler was forced to make the decision after Schröder lost a vote of no-confidence. — Â