Kohl may face his most formidable challenger yet Elections tomorrow in Lower Saxony may ultimately determine who is the next chancellor of Germany. Denis Staunton has been on the campaign trail in Braunschweig CITY EDITION

• Published in: The Irish times
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dublin The Irish Times DAC 28.02.1998

As he climbed on stage to address 10,000 supporters in Braunschweig's Stadthalle, Gerhard Schroeder was clearly relieved that this was the final rally in a six-week election campaign. Opinion polls are unanimous in predicting that the Social Democrat will remain prime minister of Lower Saxony after tomorrow's state election and most forecast an increase in his party's share of the vote. "I want two signals to go out from Lower Saxony to the whole republic. One is that the Social Democrats will continue their work in putting the interests of employees first in Lower Saxony. The other must be a clear message that the Kohl era is over," Mr Schroeder declared. Dr Kohl has been a permanent presence during the Lower Saxony campaign, moving through the state to maximise the vote of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU). It is no secret that the Chancellor has little affection for his party's candidate, a 38-yearold lawyer from Osnabruck called Christian Wulff. It is equally clear the CDU has no chance of gaining power in Lower Saxony. But Dr Kohl's hard campaigning could pay off if he eats into Mr Schroeder's vote because the Social Democrat has vowed he will not be his party's candidate for chancellor if his share of the vote tomorrow falls by more than 2 per cent.