- Title: GERMANY: SCHROEDER HITS CAMPAIGN TRAIL EARLY IN BID TO OVERTURN POLL DEFECIT.
- Date: 6th August 2002
- Summary: (W6) HANOVER, GERMANY (AUGUST 5, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: WIDE OF PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET IN HANOVER 0.05 2. GV/MV/CU/PAN: SOCIAL DEMOCRATS (SPD) STAND IN STREET; SPD HELPERS BEHIND STAND; PAN FROM PAMPHLET READING "PERFORMANCE COUNTS" TO POSTCARD WITH PHOTOGRAPH OF CHANCELLOR GERHARD SCHROEDER (3 SHOTS) 0.27 3. GV/PAN: WIDE OF
- Embargoed: 21st August 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HANOVER, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA1UX3PA98HHITNNL77FU4RL94Q
- Story Text: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, behind in opinion
polls, has launched his party's campaign tour three weeks
earlier than planned, addressing issues ranging from
unemployment fears to Iraq.
Seven weeks before September 22 elections, Schroeder on
Monday (August 5) addressed a crowd of about 10,000 in a
central square in his hometown Hanover, flanked by his wife
and leading members of his Social Democratic Party.
There were cheers from the front of the crowd, stocked
with party workers and muted applause further back, as
Schroeder strode the length of the crowd to the stage as pop
music blared.
"The Social Democrats are on the move because they want to
win (the September 22 general election). And because they want
to win they will win!," Schroeder said.
Schroeder will visit 47 cities in coming weeks as his
party seeks to seize the initiative from the conservative
opposition.
The sagging economy is the focus of a campaign pitting
Schroeder against conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber, but
in recent days Schroeder has sought to boost support by
stressing opposition to a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.
"Pressure on (Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein ? Yes! We
must be capable of sending the international monitors into the
country but I can only warn of playing games with a war and
military intervention. You can't do that with us!", Schroeder
told the crowd in Hanover.
Schroeder is more personally popular than Stoiber in polls
but his party has lost support as the economy has faltered
over the past year.
Both the SPD and the conservatives broadly back the social
market economy that has emerged in Germany since World War II,
but conservatives say they will be more aggressive in seeking
to cut taxes and state spending to boost the economy.
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