COUNTRY PROFILE/Germany: Germany's independent stance on the war in Iraq may play into European election campaigns there, Derek Scally reports from Berlin
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is hoping lightning strikes twice in next month's European elections, judging from the billboards for his Social Democratic Party (SPD) bearing the slogan "Germany the Peacemaker - thanks to the SPD".
Mr Schröder clinched a last-minute general election victory in 2002 by announcing that Germany would not participate in US "military misadventures" in Iraq. SPD leaders will argue in the European election campaign that Germany's opposition to the war was and remains correct, and that Europe has a valuable role to play as a "prevention power" against a hawkish White House administration.
"The fact that Bush is playing Rambo again is just right for us. We can profit from that," said a leading Social Democrat to Der Spiegel magazine.
Publicly, however, the SPD denies it is repackaging its opposition to the Iraq war for the upcoming election.
"We will not be discussing Iraq. We are talking about Europe - we want to make Europe a world power for peace. We want a European foreign minister who speaks for Europe with one voice," says an SPD election spokesman, before noting that "of course, people will naturally look back at our record and see if what we say is believable".
The SPD hopes its recent anti-war record will work for them at the expense of the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU). If the CDU had been in power, goes the SPD argument to voters, German soldiers would be in Iraq today.
However, opinion polls show the SPD is likely to attract just 25 per cent support as voters use the election to punish the government on domestic issues: unpopular reforms, the ongoing economic stagnation and unemployment stuck at over 10 per cent.
The CDU is expected to secure around 48 per cent of the poll, together with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). The CSU has been the most vocal in pushing what will probably be the second crucial issue of the European elections here: Turkey's possible EU accession.
The Bavarians are fighting this campaign with the slogan: "Turkey - Friendship Yes, Membership No." The CDU has declined to say whether it will go as far in its campaign.
The ruling SPD-Green Party coalition is a clear backer of Turkey in the EU and is fielding Turkish-German MEP candidates.But the government would prefer not to be dragged into the Turkey debate at all.
"The next parliament will have a lot of important decisions to make, but Turkey is not one of them," says an SPD source.
Despite all the issues on the table, however, apathy is likely to be the major issue of the elections in Germany. Polls say that only 49 per cent of the electorate will show up.
Just two MEPs running for re-election could be considered in any way familiar to voters: Mr Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the Greens and the Social Democrat Mr Martin Schulz, who Mr Silvio Berlusconi said looked like a concentration camp guard.