GERMANY: Christian Democrat (CDU) leader Angela Merkel has urged voters to make her chancellor in three weeks' time, saying it is "high time to get Germany back on course".
Thousands of CDU delegates held "Choose Change" posters aloft at a huge party rally in the western city of Dortmund yesterday as Dr Merkel delivered a clever speech that was short on details but full of feeling and oozing confidence.
"Whoever has a clear goal before them is confident of reaching that goal, and whoever believes in themselves wins the trust of others," she told delegates.
Only one figure remained calm among the cheering: the voluminous figure of Helmut Köhl, Dr Merkel's mentor, looking for all the world like an enigmatic political Buddha in the front row, his facial expression betraying nothing.
Dr Merkel told the crowd that Germany is facing a decision of the same magnitude as the foundation of the federal republic in 1949, which started the postwar reconstruction of the country.
"In 2005 it is about the renewal of our country. The decision for Germany is at hand, either more of the same or a new start," she said, adding that the "red-green" Schröder government - and not the people - was to blame for Germany's most pressing problems of 11 per cent unemployment and low economic growth.
"This bad situation is not, as Mr Schröder likes to maintain, steered by foreign forces - the collapse of the new economy, rising oil prices or international terrorism. No, these events have threatened our neighbours too and they managed to deal better with it." Dr Merkel said she was determined to tap into Germany's strengths and reawaken a sense of personal responsibility for Germany's recovery.
"People can do much more than red-green gives credit for. Our task is to awaken their strengths, trust in them more. We don't have to resign ourselves to the situation of the country.
"If you want to build boats, you shouldn't begin by gathering wood or saw planks but awaken in people a longing for the big sea," she said, quoting French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery. "We need this longing for the sea, the good mood that carried us along in the founding years of the federal republic, particularly in these times of globalisation."
The CDU would deliver more family-friendly politics, a reform of complex tax laws and return firm values to German politics, she said. "We have just experienced with World Youth Day what authority Pope Benedict represents to young people. It is precisely in times of rapid change and insecurity that people long for firm, fundamental values and politics must bring this to fruition."
Dr Merkel barely touched on foreign policy in her 45-minute address, except to reiterate the CDU's determination to keep Turkey out of the EU.
"We are of the opinion that the integration possibilities of the current EU would be overwhelmed with full membership for Turkey," she said, getting the loudest cheer of her address.
"We want friendly relations with Turkey but also honest relations and therefore it is important to say today, and not in 10 years or 15 years when many of today's politicians are no long in office, what we see as possible and what we see as impossible."
In Berlin, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said he is still fighting for re-election on September 18th, even though his Social Democrats (SPD) is lagging up to 15 points in the polls.
"I'm fighting for the continuation of my work," he said on television. "That for me is in the forefront and I have no time or strength for these other things."