Schroeder refuses to concede defeat

BERLIN - Gerhard Schroeder leapt in front of cheering supporters today to glory in yet another of the most remarkable political comebacks in German history.

Given up for dead not only by the media but even by some in his own Social Democratic party, the German chancellor rallied from a 23-point deficit in opinion polls three months ago to the brink of a third term with a dazzling finish.

Although his SPD may be two to three seats behind the Christian Democrats (CDU), Schroeder insists he has at least as many options to form a government as the stunned CDU.

"Don't listen to the other side's claim to power," Schroeder said after hauling his battered SPD to within a percentage point of the CDU and promptly telling the mortified opposition he planned to remain chancellor in a still-undefined coalition.

"Because what they wanted is a different republic than we have now and, thank God, they didn't achieve that," an aggressively confident Schroeder said to thunderous cheers.

Ignoring doubters in the SPD, he lifted the party from 26 per cent in polls in late June to 34.2 on Sunday while the CDU crested at 49 per cent then before crashing to 35.2. Even last week, some pollsters gave the CDU a comfortable 9-point lead.

"I have to admit now that there were some times, perhaps I should say minutes, where I thought 'Well...'," said Schroeder, after the battle of his life with 104 campaign stops in six weeks.

"But I shouldn't say any more than that because my wife warned me to remain statesman-like. But I did think 'Well...."'

In 2002 he overturned a 12-point deficit in the last six weeks of the campaign to beat conservative Edmund Stoiber.

But critics have said the telegenic campaign of the man sometimes derided as "the media chancellor" only masks the failures of his government to tackle economic reform.

They say he squandered five years doing nothing to put the world's third largest economy on track, and his reforms since 2003 were too little to combat unemployment and stagnation.

Moving from the left flank of the SPD to the right, he worked his way upwards and was picked to challenge Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1998.

- REUTERS