Germans Haven't Forgotten Schroeder's Unfulfilled Pledge

Record Jobless Rate May Haunt Chancellor in Sunday's Vote

BREMEN, Germany -- When he took office seven years ago, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder made a big promise he didn't keep.

"My most important job is the fight against the scourge of unemployment," he declared in his victory speech after winning the 1998 election. During the campaign, he told Germany's 4 million jobless that he would slash unemployment. Voters should kick him out of office if he failed, he added later.

Today, Germany's jobless rate is worse than ever; the number of people out of work hit a post-World War II high this year. German voters haven't forgotten Schroeder's pledge, and polls suggest they are ready to depose him in Sunday's national elections.

Angela Merkel, the candidate of the Christian Democrats who wants Schroeder's job, and her allies have been relentless in their reminders. "You have spent seven years making empty promises," she said in Parliament last week, telling lawmakers that Schroeder was "a man who has had his chance."

The criticism rings familiar to Schroeder, 61, who defeated longtime German leader Helmut Kohl by harping on the same thing. He called Kohl "the chancellor of unemployment" and ripped him for not having done more to invigorate the economy.

Germany exports more goods than any other country and has the world's third-largest economy. But it has been dogged by high jobless rates and weak economic growth for the better part of two decades. An aging workforce, generous social welfare programs and a cultural resistance to change have stymied efforts by a succession of governments to fix the economic problems.

Schroeder's Social Democrats and their partner in government, the Greens party, were hobbled by large deficits stemming from the huge public investment to unify the country after the Berlin Wall collapsed. The coalition did trim social benefits and cut some taxes to encourage companies to hire more workers, but the strategy has not panned out. Many of Germany's biggest industrial companies remain profitable, but have shifted jobs to Eastern Europe and other regions where it is cheaper to operate.

"He really thought that curbing costs would improve the situation and reduce unemployment -- he really believed that," said Michael Vester, a professor at the University of Hannover, in Schroeder's home town. "But this was an error. It didn't work."

In addition to the worsening job climate, average personal incomes have stagnated on Schroeder's watch. That, in turn, has caused Germans to consume less, hurting economic growth.

Things got so bad that Schroeder decided in May to call new elections a year early. With many lawmakers in his own party abandoning him, he said German voters needed to decide whether the country should continue his policies. In public, he looked tired and beaten. Some analysts suggested that he had lost his enthusiasm for the job.

Since then, Schroeder has recovered some of his zest on the campaign trail. His coalition, known as "red-green" for the colors of its two parties, has gained in the polls by predicting that Merkel's Christian Democrats will shred Germany's social safety net and cut taxes for the rich. But he's offered few new ideas, and polls indicate he faces long odds to win another term.

At a rally in Bremen, a river port in northern Germany, about 4,000 people turned out in a drizzle Wednesday to hear Schroeder defend his record. He seemed to draw energy from the crowd as he pumped his fists in the air and thundered into the microphone.