Germans Battle the Blues Ahead of Vote

After seven years of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's leadership, citizens of Europe's largest economy are glum about the future.

A poll released just ten days before the September 18 election showed Germans are more pessimistic about their future now than at any time since national reunification 15 years ago. A whopping 68 percent are frightened by rising joblessness, a similar number by a declining economy (70 percent) and soaring prices (72 percent), the survey by R+V insurance company showed. And 52 percent said they were more fearful about the future in general -- twice as high as in 1990.

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder touched on the issue in his only head-to-head televised debate with Angela Merkel during the election campaign. Merkel portrayed Germany as a country weighed down by the burden of unemployment which rose to five million this year and said people were looking over their shoulders worrying that their job may be the next to go.

Schröder hit back: "You talk about Germany as if it is a useless country. It is dangerous to present it like that, not least for our position in international competition."

"The view of us from abroad is far better," Schröder said, adding that Germany's economy compared favorably with those of Italy, Spain and France. The chancellor is campaigning to continue a program of controversial labour market reforms he says the country needs to compete in the 21st century.

Better off than France?

As a German-born member of the British parliament, Gisela Stuart is ideally placed to gauge the opinion of her country of birth from abroad. She told the AFP news agency that Germany had more grounds for optimism than its neighbor France

"There is pessimism within Germany and they are stagnating quite badly. Individually they are affluent enough, but no one is prepared to bite the bullet on the economy. But they are beginning to see what they need to do," she said. "I am much more worried about the future of France with its centrally planned economy."

Stuart said Germany just has to re-discover the liberal underpinnings of its economy that help the country experience an unprecedented boom after the war.

According to some observers, Germany's economy still does compete against say, France or Italy, partly because of recent reforms, but that is necessarily translating into greater confidence in the general public.

Holger Fahrenkrug, chief economist at UBS bank in Frankfurt, said that while the economy may be improving, workers were being hit in the pocket.

"No one in Germany would deny that great progress has been made on competitiveness and labour costs, but in real terms wages have been slashed and that makes consumers unhappy," he said. "The level of wealth in Germany is still very favorable, but it is entering a period where it is struggling to keep up with other economies which used to perform worse."