German shadow team

GERHARD Schroder, the Social Democrats' chancellor candidate, sprung a surprise in Germany yesterday by naming a former lawyer of the Baader-Meinhof gang as shadow interior minister, writes Imre Karacs.

Otto Schily, 66, defended urban terrorists in the Seventies before becoming an MP for the Greens until 1989, when he defected to the Social Democrats. Also in the team are left-winger Oskar Lafontaine for finance, Rudolf Scharping - the party's least popular leader ever - for foreign affairs and trade unionist Walter Riester for labour.