Challenger to Kohl’s Longtime Rule Emerges

Germany’s “eternal chancellor,” Helmut Kohl, suddenly acquired a powerful opponent Sunday, as the popular Gerhard Schroeder led his Social Democratic Party to its strongest showing since World War II in state elections in Lower Saxony.

During his campaign to be reelected head of the state government, the 53-year-old Schroeder has been saying for months that if he did well in Sunday’s election, he should be nominated to run against Kohl when Germany holds federal elections this fall.

And, although the pro-business Schroeder is not the favorite of his party’s leadership, party manager Franz Muentefering gave a nod to the voters’ message Sunday evening, saying that Schroeder will indeed get the nomination today when the party executive board meets in Bonn.

“I didn’t even dream this result in my wildest dreams,” a jubilant Schroeder said as early returns showed the Social Democrats with about 48% of the ballots in Lower Saxony, Germany’s second-largest state. “The Kohl era is over.”

Many recent opinion surveys have suggested that Schroeder is the politician with by far the best chance of defeating Kohl. Schroeder, who has been Lower Saxony’s minister president--a post comparable to a U.S. governor--since 1990, campaigned mainly on the issue of jobs.

Unemployment has become a weak point for Kohl, who has governed Germany for 15 years and smashed one Social Democratic opponent after another in federal elections until now. The official jobless rate nationwide is about 12%, but in some parts of Germany, particularly the former East, it is higher than 20%.

“These [election] results show there is a clear wish for change in Bonn,” said Schroeder, adding that it appeared many voters from smaller political parties had crossed over to vote Social Democratic, just to make sure he got the nomination.

“I don’t underestimate Helmut Kohl,” Schroeder added. “He is a very tough, dangerous opponent. I will put my every effort into fulfilling the voters’ wishes.”

Until now, Schroeder’s greatest rival was not a politician from Kohl’s Christian Democratic Union but the leader of his own Social Democrats, Oskar Lafontaine. Lafontaine also sought the nomination to run against Kohl, and Schroeder set up the Lower Saxony elections as a kind of primary in which voters would send a signal as to who they thought should get the candidacy.

Thus the voters were being asked indirectly to decide between Schroeder’s pro-business, pro-jobs message and Lafontaine’s pledges to uphold the Social Democrats’ traditions of a solid welfare state and protection for society’s weakest.

Lafontaine accepted his indirect defeat gracefully Sunday night, coming out of his house to offer waiting reporters glasses of celebratory schnapps and say he was “delighted” by Schroeder’s success.

“We didn’t expect such a great victory,” he said.