GERMANY: German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has overtaken challenger Mr Edmund Stoiber in a new opinion poll 12 days before a general election, after winning a television debate with his clear opposition to an Iraq war.
The poll, conducted by the Infratest dimap institute, is the highlight so far in a furious catch-up race since last month for Mr Schröder's Social Democrats, who have trailed Mr Stoiber's Conservatives in all major voter surveys since January.
The turnaround has been put down to Mr Schröder's firm handling of a crisis wrought by floods that ravaged swathes of Germany last month, his vocal criticism of a possible US strike on Iraq and his strong TV debate performance on Sunday.
Infratest puts the Social Democrats at 39 per cent, up one point from a poll last week, with Mr Stoiber's Conservatives down 1.5 points at 38 per cent in the survey of 1,000 people conducted on Monday, a day after the debate viewed by 16 million.
Mr Schröder has managed to move the focus of the campaign onto war fears and his own personality and away from the economy, seen as his Achilles Heel after he failed to meet his pledge to cut unemployment significantly, analysts said.
But it also suggests Germany may be heading for a hung parliament and prolonged political uncertainty which would unsettle financial markets.
The Greens, Mr Schröder's junior partners in government, were unchanged at 7.5 per cent, behind the liberal Free Democrats who were also unchanged at 8.5 per cent, Infratest said. - (Reuters)