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'Germany Plan' to Lift Election Hopes

SPD Pledges to Create 4 Million New Jobs

Germany's center-left Social Democrats, struggling to revive their flagging election campaign, will present a "Germany Plan" on Monday to eradicate unemployment by 2020 by promoting green technology. Rival parties say it's a completely unrealistic pledge that smacks of desperation.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate to become chancellor in the Sept. 27 election, will make a fresh attempt to revive his campaign on Monday by pledging to create 4 million jobs and create full employment by 2020.

Steinmeier, whose center-left party is trailing Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives by more than 10 points less than eight weeks before the election, will present his "Germany Plan" on Monday evening.

SPIEGEL has seen the 67-page document which outlines plans to create 2 million jobs in industry through improved efficiency in the consumption of energy and raw materials and by promoting green technologies such as electrically-powered cars.

Steinmeier wants to revive the practice of his erstwhile mentor, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, of hosting roundtable meetings of unions, banks and industry to solve national problems -- in this case, the aim will be to avert a credit crunch and boost employment.

The Silicon Valley of Green Technologies

He also plans to found new research institutes for energy technology and a software university. There will be tax benefits for corporate research and Germany will become "the Silicon Valley of environmentally friendly industrial production," Steinmeier will pledge.

"We're going to show how Germany, with the help of a clever political strategy, can create a total of 4 million new jobs in the next decade," the Germany Plan states. "We will beat unemployment by 2020."

His advisors say the plan amounts to the most ambitious and coherent economic concept in Europe.

Steinmeier will present it in Berlin later on Monday to give a much-needed boost to his election hopes. His campaign launch last week, when he unveiled his campaign team, was overshadowed by controversy surrounding SPD Health Minister Ulla Schmidt, who faced accusations of wasting taxpayers' money by taking her official limousine plus chauffeur on holiday with her.

Rival Parties Pour Scorn on Plan

Predictably, rival parties have heaped criticism on the "Germany Plan," describing it as unrealistic and vague. Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats, said: "Voters justifiably expect concrete proposals. Little of that can be found with the SPD."

Ralf Brauksiepe, labor market expert for the Christian Democrats, said: "This is typically socialist, planned economy thinking that won't get us any further."

The pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) went further. "Promising 4 million new jobs is an act of desperation, an attempt to get the prostrate SPD back on its feet again by making frivolous promises to voters," said FDP General Secretary Dirk Niebel.

Steinmeier's Germany Plan promises 1.5 million new jobs in the health and creative industries, including several hundred thousand new carers for the sick and elderly and 500,000 jobs in the media, culture and design sectors.

He wants to set up a "creative pact" among government, industry and artists to improve the protection of intellectual property in the Internet age.

However, the plans lack details on how the 4 million jobs are to be created. Steinmeier wants to boost public investment, cut taxes for low earners and balance the budget -- he'll have to explain how he proposes to achieve that.

The SPD's principal aim in the campaign now seems to be to prevent a Merkel-led coalition between the conservatives and the FDP. It plans to portray the FDP, Merkel's preferred coalition partner, as an uncaring party that merely wants to protect the interests of its high-income clientele.

Steinmeier is prepared to scupper any prospect of forming a coalition with the FDP after the election because barely anyone in the SPD believes that a three-way coalition between the SPD, FDP and Greens would be workable.

That means the SPD is aiming for a repeat of its current coalition with the conservatives under Merkel. After all, being a junior partner in government is better than languishing in the opposition.

With reporting by Markus Feldenkirchen and Kerstin Kullmann.