Gerhard Schröder had already based his, until a couple of days ago seemingly hopeless, reelection campaign on personal attacks against Paul Kirchhof, the Christian Democrats’ tax expert, who formulated the proposal for a flat tax. It is extremely galling to hear Schröder dump on a man who is superior to him in every way, and that he could do it to the applause of the Social Democrat support base.
Even worse, Schröder’s state minister in the Chancellory (roughly equivalent to the chief of staff in the White House), chose to use this as an election placard in his electoral district in former East Germany:
The caption says ‘She would have sent soldiers’, i.e. Angela Merkel would have sent German soldiers to Iraq, some of whom would now also come home in coffins. It seems as if Schröder’s party simply won’t stop at any depravity.
This also is a sign of how desperate the Social Democrats are. The newly formed ‘Linke’ threatens to take second place behind the Christian Democrats in former East Germany, leaving the Social Democrats in the dust in third place, with just 24 percent of the vote there. That would be an unmitigated disaster for a self-declared ‘Volkspartei’ (people’s party, as opposed to small parties like the Greens and pro-market Free Democrats).
I seriously hope that the Social Democrats lose by wide margin. It might well be that the ‘recovery’ the Social Democrats allegedly enjoy in the polls is nothing but wishful thinking by the left wing part of the press.
Some local reaction:
The daily paper Bild Zeitung calls this ‘Wahlkampf pervers’, which means ‘A perverted election campaign’.
The decidedly left-of-center, and usually reliably anti-American Spiegel Online, notes that Schwanitz has come under a lot of criticism over the last days, in the press and also by harshly critical letters and emails.
PS: The website is right now getting redesigned, so the photo above is only visible here, SPON and at Bild.de
Yeah, but, will it work? Will this get him more votes than it loses him?
The Kirchhof Revolution will only be delayed should there be a stalemate in the German election on Sunday. Competition from Eastern Europe for capital will only intensify in the next ten years and no merchant can continue to demand a higher price for a product when the next door merchant charges a lot less.
Lex,
I don’t know, but I don’t think so. It will, just like Schröder’s campaign in 2002, bring Schwanitz voters from those radical leftists who would otherwise stay home, or prevent them from voting for the new left party instead, but it also will turn some people off.
Either way, it’s the thought that counts, and I’m seriously mad about it.
Suleiman,
no mater how effectivee the placard may be or not be, the campaign against Kirchhof certainly was effective, But I do hope that you are right in the long run.