'Vote for me and it will be Yes Weekend'

BERLIN - Germany's latest candidate for Chancellor has ferocious buck teeth, wants to make the bunny rather than the eagle the country's national symbol and has tried to copy United States President Barack Obama with his campaign slogan: "Yes Weekend."

Horst Schlaemmer, played by comedian Hape Kerkeling, has succeeded in livening up one of the dullest elections on record.

His just released satirical film Isch kandidiere (I am a candidate) is almost certain to be a box office hit in Germany. One in five Germans have said they would consider voting for him if his name were on a ballot paper.

Schlaemmer is a Teutonic version of Sasha Baron Cohen's Borat. He sports a dirty brown raincoat, moustache and thick glasses and his clothes are normally covered with bits of food. He claims to be the deputy editor of a provincial German newspaper and set up his HSP (Horst Schlaemmer Party) to fight the general election. His manifesto pledges state-funded sun-loungers and cosmetic surgery for all.

Asked about the financial crisis, Schlammer says: "I have no solution." Swine flu? "I'm against it."

The satire coincides with another joke election campaign waged by "The Party" which says it wants to rebuild the Berlin Wall and banish pensioners to the former communist east. The party is fighting a ruling which bans it from taking part in the election.

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