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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

‘Man of the streets’ Schulz plots to defeat Merkel

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Martin Schulz is the former president of the European Parliament and brings oratory and a common touch Merkel cannot match  


Paul Carrel and Holger Hansen


His only experience of governing in Germany is as a town mayor. She is Europe’s most powerful leader.


Yet Martin Schulz wants to end Angela Merkel’s 11-year run as chancellor and fundamentally shift Germany’s role in Europe. He might just pull it off.


Schulz has revitalised his Social Democrats’ (SPD) fortunes since they nominated him last month to challenge Merkel in a September 24 federal election, narrowing a popularity gap with her conservatives and even overtaking them in one opinion poll.


Who is he — one year Merkel’s junior at 61, Schulz is the former president of the European Parliament. While she has a doctorate in physics, he left school without his final exams before working his way up through local politics and on to Brussels. He brings oratory and a common touch she cannot match.


What is more, he offers change: An end to Germany’s role as enforcer of the austerity that has fed deep resentment across southern Europe, and an increase in government investment at home with less obsessing about fiscal discipline.


With no executive experience, Schulz faces a formidable task in taking on Merkel, Europe’s anchor of stability who won the endorsement of former US president Barack Obama on a farewell to Berlin visit last November. Schulz is certainly up for the fight.


“I want there to be fairness in our country!” he roared to thundering applause from several hundred supporters at an SPD meeting on Monday in Bielefeld in northwestern Germany, one of the many towns he is visiting to re-energise the party’s base. In a 65-minute speech, Schulz took aim at job insecurity and old-age poverty, promising to defend pensions, reduce temporary work contracts and revise some of the ‘Agenda 2010’ labour reforms enacted by the last SPD-led government.


“When we have billions in budget surpluses in this country, I don’t want this money used for tax relief on big incomes but rather for it to be invested,” Schulz said, demanding more investment in education, infrastructure and digital technology.


By prioritising investment, Schulz contrasts with Merkel’s Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, who is resolute in his pursuit of a balanced budget and who wants to use surpluses to pay off debts now and cut taxes after the election.


The SPD would not go so far as to ditch the so-called debt brake that allows the federal government to take on new debt only up to the equivalent of 0.35 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) each year.


“That is not up for debate. Nobody is talking about that,” Ralf Stegner, a Schulz ally and deputy SPD leader, said.


But a Schulz-led government would take a more accommodative approach to euro zone peers trying to reform their economies than that championed by Schaeuble, who has raised the prospect of a Greek exit from the bloc.


Under Merkel, Germany has led demands for austerity in Greece in return for aid.


Her government wants Athens to reach a primary budget surplus, excluding debt repayments, of 3.5 per cent of GDP, and keep it there. Berlin argues that if Athens can hit that target, no debt relief


will be necessary.


The SPD is ready to ease the austerity Greece must swallow. “The Greeks have had to make huge reforms, putting a heavy strain on ordinary people,” Stegner said, noting Athens had achieved surpluses. “Yet these are not big enough for Schaeuble. There is a completely different attitude on this in the SPD.”


“If there is an SPD-led government, there will be a change of course on this point,” Stegner said. “We want growth and employment in Europe.”


SPD lawmaker Achim Post, who has known Schulz since 1994, worked with him in Brussels, and now sits on the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, underlined the point: “More must be done for growth and employment,” he said. “If I push Greece further under water, or Portugal too, how should growth be generated if I cut wages and pensions.”


Post, who was at Schulz’s side at the Bielefeld meeting, said his old friend is determined to win the election. “He doesn’t just want to stand as a candidate, he wants to be chancellor,” Post said.


With his focus on fighting inequality, Schulz is trying to sharpen the SPD’s policy edge, blunted by spending seven of the last 11 years sharing


power as junior coalition partners with Merkel’s conservatives. — Reuters


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