Jobless blow to Kohl campaign

UNLESS HE wins the elections at the end of the month, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's promise to bring German unemployment below 4 million will not be realised. Yesterday was his last chance, with the publication of figures for August, and he was 95,000 over the limit.

There was, however, a fall in the last summer month, and the Chancellor saw in this the vindication of his policies. "The positive development has stabilised," he said. "I expect that in the coming month the number of unemployed will be below 4 million and in the full year we will have fewer people out of work than in 1997."

That would no doubt be hailed as a great achievement, although perhaps not as sweeping as he had anticipated. There was a point in his current term of office when Mr Kohl had promised to halve the number of jobless by the year 2000. Since then he has proceeded nearly to double it.

Unfortunately for Mr Kohl, all his undoubted successes are seen in the light of the various promises he has made during his long career.

The economy is powering ahead, the number of jobless has fallen for eight months in succession in the west, and for three months in a row in the east. But some of these new jobs can all too directly be credited to the Chancellor and his election campaign. Vast sums have been pumped into make-work schemes in recent months in a frantic effort to get below the magic 4 million.

As Bernhard Jagoda, the head of the Federal Labour Office, put it: "The situation has improved slightly but the recent increase in employment in the east is attributed to the unusually strong expansion of job-creation schemes."