Schroeder’s Image Buoyed by German Tsunami Response

The politics of disaster can be tricky, but German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s passionate and decisive responses to the tsunami tragedy are boosting him in the polls at a time when his domestic programs are under attack.

Schroeder has blended deep emotion with political pragmatism in what is viewed in government circles here as an attempt to accomplish two goals. The first is to comfort his nation, which has at least 60 dead and hundreds missing in the southern Asian tsunami. The second is to mobilize an aid package worth $690 million to show that Germany is emerging as a world power worthy of a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The 60-year-old chancellor cut short his Christmas vacation and oversaw a quick response to the crisis, including calling for debt relief for devastated countries and dispatching Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to Indonesia.

Schroeder’s actions were reminiscent of the summer of 2002 when, sliding in the polls and in danger of losing reelection, he rallied the nation after floods caused more than $10 billion in damage in eastern Germany.

“Schroeder is a master of the flood,” Die Welt wrote in an editorial critical of his alleged motives. “He is now deftly using the tsunami disaster in order to portray himself as a compassionate politician and an international man of action. Even if it is legitimate to take such action, and every other politician would do the same, it is disquieting.

“Do sums have to be pledged which give the impression that nations are in a selfish donation competition?” the editorial asked.

Johannes Becker, a political scientist at Marburg University, said Berlin’s aid donation was part of a wider aim to improve relations with Muslim nations.

“There’s a battle between the U.S., Germany and the European Union to win, to get more influence in the Islamic world via the tsunami,” he said. “They are overtaking themselves with promises. But no one knows how we’re going to pay for it.”

Some German publications suggested that Schroeder might be blurring a delicate line between opportunism and tragedy, but they concluded that his response underscored the broad German desire to help.

The government’s pledge, which started at $27 million, has jumped ahead of the U.S. donation of $350 million, though it remains behind Australia’s $765 million. Private donations by Germans have risen to more than $450 million, the highest such postwar contribution by the nation.

Recent polls suggest that Schroeder wisely gauged German sentiment regarding the relief effort. The chancellor and his Social Democrats were struggling throughout much of last year with low approval ratings as they pushed through sweeping economic and social reforms. Schroeder’s popularity fell to 30% in polls, and the party’s plunged to 25%, compared with 50% approval for the opposition conservatives. By late last year, Schroeder, whose party faces two tough state elections in coming months, began winning public support for his policies, whereas the conservatives became mired in internal squabbles and leadership issues. Schroeder’s response to the tsunami added to his momentum, and his approval rating has risen to 47%, according to Forsa, a German polling company. The Social Democrats’ rating jumped to 35%, and the leading conservative Christian Democratic Union tumbled to 38%.

The aid to southern Asia also boosted expectations that Germany might gain an edge in attaining its long-sought permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. Schroeder and Fischer have traveled extensively during the last year, including trips to China and Russia, to lobby for the move. But at a recent news conference, Schroeder was adamant that the aid package was not an attempt to buy a seat.

“We would do this if there wasn’t the discussion on the Security Council,” said Schroeder, who appeared to respond to the disaster more quickly than President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other European leaders. “That is the expectation of the [German] people, who have shown generosity, helpfulness and humanity.”

The tsunami gave Schroeder’s government an ideal opportunity to convince U.N. members that Germany, with the world’s third-largest economy, deserved a seat among the elite, many political analysts say. The country has been positioning itself for such a move since reunification in 1990.

The council’s permanent members -- including the United States, which had bitter differences with Berlin over the Iraq war -- have not openly supported Germany’s ascension.

The matter is expected to be discussed next month in Germany at a meeting between Bush and Schroeder.