Schroder ignores polls to rally his party for election

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, sent his struggling Social Democrats onto the campaign trail yesterday with a forceful pledge to fight for victory and to protect government social programmes against a conservative opposition he depicted as heartless.

At a national party convention, Mr Schröder also urged Germans to shun an opposition party he accused of injecting anti-Semitism into the election campaign in an attempt to win far-right voters.

With his own party trailing in the polls, Mr Schröder was at his most combative in months when he fired up delegates for his bid for a second term in parliamentary elections on 22 September.

"Some already want to write us off. Others already view this country as their booty," Mr Schröder told delegates during a long speech repeatedly interrupted by rhythmic applause. "But they are celebrating too soon." He said he was confident that "we will reach the finish line first".

Yet a poll for the ZDF television station on Friday gave the Social Democrats 33 per cent voter support, compared with 41 per cent for the opposition Christian Democrats.

Evoking a "dangerous" shift to the right in several European countries, Mr Schröder lashed out in his speech at the opposition Free Democrats for stirring a furore over recent remarks by one of its leaders that Jewish leaders have described as anti-Semitic. Mr Schröder accused the party of pandering to the far right and ruled it out as a possible post-election coalition partner.

Mr Schröder also sought to rally his party with an appeal to leftist themes dear to its core supporters, telling delegates he wanted a government that was is there for its citizens, "especially the most vulnerable". He portrayed the conservatives as bent on slashing workers' rights and social programmes, and on moving Germany toward an "inhuman" kind of capitalism.

Mr Schröder also promised new government funding for child care, saying young Germans should not be forced to choose between their jobs and having a family. But he offered few specific plans on further economic reforms – the main line of attack of his challenger, the governor of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber.

Mr Stoiber accuses the Chancellor of standing by as German economic growth has slid behind that of other European economies. The opposition promises tax cuts and deregulation if elected. Mr Schröder blames the slump on the world economy, but he has abandoned a pledge to bring the number of jobless below 3.5 million by election day.

The spat continued between Germany's Jewish community and the Free Democrats, a pro-business party that has served in most post-war German governments. The conflict centres on the deputy party chairman, Jürgen Möllemann, who said a prominent Jewish leader and talk-show host, Michel Friedman, had risked triggering anti-Semitism because of his strong defence of Israeli actions.

Jewish leaders also want the Free Democrats to cut ties with a Syrian-born state legislator who accused Israel of using Nazi methods against Palestinians. Paul Spiegel, the head of Germany's Jewish community, was quoted yesterday as saying that he is insisting on an apology. But Mr Möllemann made it clear that recent expressions of regret from himself and his party – not a full apology – were all the Jewish group would get.