German right raises Haider flag in the Ruhr

Eleven prepubescent cheerleaders herald the entry of the man who would be the German Jörg Haider. Cameras whirr, Jürgen Rüttgers, arms outstretched, mounts the podium, and the assault on foreign capitalists begins.

"We need rules for the new globalisation, so the little people don't get hurt," he tells his mostly middle-aged audience in a small town in the Ruhr, the rusting heart of German industry, where one out of five people is out of work.

The anti-capitalist message always sold well in the Ruhr, but never in this packaging. Mr Rüttgers is no missionary of the loony left but a God-fearing Catholic, leader of the Christian Democrats in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, a politician of excruciating sobriety and blandness. Yet here he is railing against Wall Street and jeering at workers imported from distant lands. These issues, he has calculated, will bring in the conservatives votes.

His theory will be put to the test tomorrow when the people of North Rhine-Westphalia go to the polls to elect a new regional assembly. For 30 years the Social Democrats have governed in the Land capital Düsseldorf, and to dislodge them Mr Rüttgers is trying the politics that proved so successful recently in Austria.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) campaign kicked off with the election slogan "Kinder statt Inder" - "Children instead of Indians". That was a knee-jerk reaction to plans by the Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's federal government to cut the red tape and import up to 10,000 computer experts.

A small number of applicants might come from India, although most will be East Europeans. But Mr Rüttgers stuck to Indians, because it is easier to run a racist campaign against them than, say, Bulgarians. Mr Rüttgers denies fishing for votes in the gutter. Rattled by disapproval even within his own party, he changed the slogan to "Education instead of immigration", and toned down the rhetoric. But only after sustained protests did he remove the deliberately offensive word "Hindus" from the campaign literature last week.

He still talks about Indians as he tries to rouse the somnolent audience in Herne. "We have 14,000 computer experts in training. We must make sure these 14,000 people get jobs first, before we bring in foreigners."

Mr Rüttgers, 48-year-old former education minister in the Kohl government, knows German industry is crying out for computer specialists of any hue, because schools and universities have not produced enough. But he also knows the anti-foreigner card came up trumps for the Christian Democrats in regional elections in Hesse a year ago.

Voters have not forgotten Mr Rüttgers had special responsibility for future industries in his four years in federal government. If not enough computer experts were trained, maybe he was partly at fault.

But the Christian Democrats are closing the gap in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Social Democrats are polling 43 per cent, three points down on the result five years ago, and the CDU is on 38 per cent.

The local party is led by the confident, perhaps arrogant Wolfgang Clement, a close ally of the Chancellor. He is twice as popular as Mr Rüttgers, with even many CDU supporters preferring him. They will probably get their wish.