Stoiber To Challenge German Leader
Edmund Stoiber, the governor of Bavaria, will lead Germany's conservative opposition in its campaign to unseat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in national elections this September after party leader Angela Merkel, his only rival for the role, stepped aside Friday.
Speaking after talks with senior colleagues, Merkel said Stoiber offered the best chance to lead Germany's conservatives back into government four years after the defeat of Helmut Kohl.
Stoiber, leader of the CDU's smaller Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, came to the decision after in a strategy meeting of CDU leaders in the east German town of Magdeburg.
She pledged to throw the full weight of her Christian Democratic Union party behind Stoiber "so that the chances for victory we have at the start of this year also become a reality."
"Together with Edmund Stoiber, I will make my contribution," she said.
Pollsters say Stoiber's track record in managing Bavaria, one of Germany's wealthiest states, makes him the right person to fight Schroeder on the main election battleground – the German economy.
Meanwhile Merkel, who was once hailed as Germany's answer to Margaret Thatcher, has failed to convince the conservatives that she has the charisma to outmaneuver media-savvy Schroeder.
Opinion polls show Stoiber, 60, would fare better than 47-year-old Merkel in a straight fight with Schroeder.
One poll by ZDF television published Friday showed 61 percent of conservative voters favored Stoiber over Merkel, up from 57 percent in December. Merkel's support slipped to 24 percent from 25 percent.
Backing for the Social Democrats crumbled in the last month as slowing economic growth and surging unemployment cast their shadow, while the Christian Democrats climbed to popularity levels not seen in more than two years.
In Germany, chancellors are not directly elected by voters. The electorate casts ballots for the parties, which in turn make non-binding choices for their leading candidates for office.
Merkel, 47, would have been the first woman and the first politician from former East Germany to run for chancellor.
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