Voters think Schroeder ‘has run out of things to say’ on key issues

A GRINNING Gerhard Schroeder leapt onto a giant stage to thumping music and applause from several thousand Social Democratic (SPD) supporters.

But by the end of his 40-minute stump speech, loud whistles and jeers from a distant fenced-off crowd of angry protesters had drowned out the cheers and twisted the German chancellor’s confident smile into a tense glare.

With a September 18 election, which Mr Schroeder brought forward by a year, looming, he is still hoping for the kind of dramatic 11th-hour comeback that won him a second term three years ago.