BERLIN: After a series of errors following his nomination, the frontrunner to become next German chancellor, Edmund Stoiber, appears happy to sit back and let his rival Gerhard Schroeder self-destruct.

Some six weeks before the legislative election, opinion polls put the conservative opposition well ahead of Chancellor Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD) — an unthinkable development six months ago when Stoiber took his first hesitant steps as candidate.

But as recent bad unemployment figures, a party scandal in Germany’s most populous state and the sacking of his defence minister took their toll on Schroeder, the silver-haired Stoiber remained virtually silent.

One of the 60-year-old Bavarian premier’s talents is to know when to step back, and his discretion has allowed German voters to almost forget his early gaffes.

Stoiber’s inauspicious debut was broadcast on television in January shortly after the Christian Social Union (CSU) leader was named conservative candidate over Angela Merkel from CSU sister-party, the Christian Democratic Union (CSU).

Appearing on the programme “Sabine Christiansen”, a political institution in Germany, Stoiber stumbled and mumbled his way through a 60-minute interview with incoherent propositions and mistakenly converting euros and marks.

The media spotlight focused ever more closely, and for around two months the additional pressure contrasted Stoiber with the easy, professional manner of his 58-year-old rival.

At the time, Stoiber sold a campaign programme that was based mainly on undoing Schroeder’s achievements, like his government’s immigration policy and phasing out nuclear power.

But as the SPD were rubbing their hands with glee, Stoiber stepped back from the brink and began concentrating on a simple economic message, jobs, and ruled out any more military interventions abroad by the cash-strapped German army.

His campaign in recent months, however, has proved profitable if largely unconvincing as he confines himself to criticising his rival’s errors and commenting on his misfortunes.—AFP