* Enthusiastic crowds cheer Merkel, McAllister in Lower
Saxony
* Conservatives rising in polls while SPD slumps
* Merkel calls Lower Saxony pivotal battle for 2013
By Erik Kirschbaum
STADE, Germany, Jan 18 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela
Merkel doesn’t make rousing speeches, but she had 1,200
supporters wildly cheering her standard sober delivery, fired up
about their brightening chances of winning a key regional
election on Sunday.
At a campaign rally in the northern town of Stade late on
Thursday, Merkel and Lower Saxony state premier David McAllister
exhorted an enthusiastic crowd of Christian Democrats (CDU) to
ensure a high turnout for the election of the regional assembly,
which in turn chooses the state premier.
Merkel’s CDU has been battered by the centre-left Social
Democrats (SPD) and Greens in 12 regional elections stretching
back to 2009. A come-from-behind win in Lower Saxony would end
that losing streak and give the chancellor a timely lift for her
own re-election hopes in September.
“We’re all excited about the outcome on Sunday,” said
Merkel, who is seeking a third term against the SPD, which is on
the ropes thanks to blunders by Peer Steinbrueck, its candidate
for Merkel’s job.
“And it’s not only the people of Lower Saxony who are
interested in this election. It’s a pivotal election. So get out
and talk to your friends and neighbours and tell them how
important this is,” she added.
SWING STATE
Lower Saxony, an industrial and farming heartland and
Germany’s fourth most populous state, can go either way; both
the centre-left and centre-right have taken turns running the
vast region bordering the Netherlands and North Sea.
If the CDU can hold power in Lower Saxony for a third
straight term on Sunday, it would send a powerful signal across
Germany and galvanise Merkel supporters.
It would also prevent the opposition from getting a blocking
majority in the Bundesrat upper house, where the 16 federal
states are represented, which could make life difficult for
Merkel’s centre-right coalition.
That explains why Merkel, who has become one of Germany’s
most popular leaders for her handling of the euro zone debt
crisis, has invested so much time in Lower Saxony. Her campaign
stop in Stade was her seventh in the last two weeks.
An opinion poll in Lower Saxony on Thursday showed a dead
heat at 46-percent for both sides. The CDU were on 41 percent
and their Free Democrat (FDP) allies 5 percent. The SPD were at
33 percent and their Greens allies at 13 percent.
Just six months ago, the SPD were in front with 36 percent
and the Greens had 13, while the CDU appeared doomed at 32
percent, with their FDP coalition partners on 4 percent – below
the 5 percent threshold needed to win seats.
“Our numbers are rising, and their numbers are going down,”
said McAllister, 42, a gifted speaker and rising star in the CDU
whose Scottish father came to West Germany as a soldier.
“It’s like we’ve caught up with them on the motorway in
their car painted in their red and green colours,” said the man
seen as a potential successor to Merkel.
“We look over and see them sitting nervously in their car.
They’re nervous because they were arrogant and thought they
already had this election in the bag,” said McAllister.
The SPD’s gaffe-prone Steinbrueck has kept a low profile in
Lower Saxony after becoming a liability for the party’s local
candidate Stefan Weil. By contrast, Merkel is a major attraction
for voters at rallies like the one here in Stade, a prosperous
town of 46,000, about 45 km west of Hamburg.
“OUR ‘IRON LADY'”
German voters seem to genuinely like 58-year-old Merkel’s
cautious style of leadership and speech, in contrast with the
bluntness that has got Steinbrueck in trouble.
“She’s tough, she’s strong, she gets the job done, and she
doesn’t waver,” said Ute Claus, 52, a lawyer who watched Merkel
and McAllister win over the crowd. “She’s our ‘Iron Lady’. Her
speech was first class, and McAllister was out of this world.”
Ruben Korff, 30, said he had no problem with Merkel’s
understated campaign style.
“She’s a super chancellor because she manages every crisis
well,” the student said. “You can’t say that about her rival. It
doesn’t bother me that she’s vague. It’s better to be cautious
than promise too much and not deliver.”
Long lines of supporters and curious locals waited in line
for up to an hour in sub-zero temperatures to see Merkel and
McAllister at the rally in Stade, where 3,000 people applied for
1,200 tickets.
“Things weren’t looking so good a few months ago,” said
Heinz-Klaus Gerken, 67, a retired teacher. “Steinbrueck keeps
shooting himself in the foot, and Merkel’s popularity has
helped. McAllister has also distanced himself from Christian
Wulff.”
Wulff, Germany’s disgraced ex president, led the CDU to two
wins in Lower Saxony in 2003 and 2008 before Merkel picked the
then-popular state premier to run for president in 2010. Wulff
was forced to resign a year later over financial irregularities.
Thorsten Matties, a 43-year-old salesman who called himself
a swing voter, said he was leaning towards the CDU because
“things are going pretty well” in Germany at the moment.
“Merkel’s a fascinating person,” he said. “She’s stayed
tough during the financial crisis, and she’s one of the few
people who never loses her cool, even when things get hectic. I
like the way she stays so calm all the time.”
