Anti-U.S. tone marks Germany elections

? Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is fighting for re-election today after a campaign laced with defiance of the United States unseen since World War II.

Schroeder’s anti-war stand on Iraq has helped him close the gap with conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian governor who has battered him over the limp economy and unemployment.

The rhetoric, which has even dragged in the Nazi past, represents the blunt edge of European misgivings over President Bush’s moves against Iraq.

Schroeder calls Bush’s push for regime change a mistake and has ruled out sending German troops into any war to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, U.N. mandate or not. While polls say more than two thirds of voters back that stance, it has left Germany standing largely alone in Europe.

Schroeder defended his staunch opposition as he closed his election campaign Saturday, even as tensions with Washington escalated.

“We say openly: The Middle East, Iraq included, needs a lot of peace but not a new war,” Schroeder said at his final campaign rally, in the eastern city of Rostock.

Days before the election, relations with Washington chilled further after a newspaper reported that Germany’s justice minister compared Bush to Adolf Hitler, saying he was threatening war to divert attention from domestic problems.

Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, also a senior official in Schroeder’s Social Democratic party, denied making the comparison.

She did admit that while discussing Iraq, she referred to diversionary tactics and said “we know that from our history, since Adolf Nazi.” But she denied using Hitler’s surname.

Bush considers the remarks “troubling,” the White House said. His spokesman Ari Fleischer noted the history of strong postwar U.S.-German ties but said the minister’s reported remarks were “outrageous and inexplicable.”

Whether the Social Democrats or Stoiber’s Christian Democrats win enough seats in the new 598-seat parliament to form a new government, this much is clear: the next chancellor will need to rebuild trust in Washington.

Stoiber says things would never reach the point of German troops shipping off to war, and accuses the chancellor of scare-mongering. Schroeder has dismissed the idea.

Iraq has shifted the focus of an election that was shaping up largely as a referendum on the economy.

A few weeks ago, Stoiber and his Christian Democrats were ahead in the polls and hammering Schroeder over the economy, while Schroeder was busy firing his defense minister over allegations of financial impropriety.

But last month the chancellor impressed many when severe floods hit east Germany, and he followed up with a strong showing in the second of two televised debates. That, plus an anti-war message, wiped out the Christian Democrats’ seven-point lead in a remarkable turnaround.