Keep the faith, ex-German Chancellor tells Merkel's election rivals

Germany - 25 June 2017: Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the last Social Democrat (SPD) to lead Germany, urged his party to go out and fight for victory in the September election despite trailing Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives by 15 points in polls.

Schroeder, renowned as a talented campaigner, told delegates at a party conference that they could still win, reminding them of the SPD's fightback to run Merkel close in the 2005 election -- the last one he fought.

"This is our chance. If we mobilise all our forces in the next few weeks, we can succeed in making the SPD the biggest party," he said to loud applause.

"Remember. Then (in 2005) we made up more than 20 points in a few weeks," Schroeder told the 600 delegates and roughly 5,000 guests. The SPD ended up only one percentage point short of Merkel's conservatives that election.

"Nothing has been decided yet," said Schroeder, who was chancellor from 1998 to 2005.

A third of voters make up their minds on election day or shortly before, he added, urging SPD leader Martin Schulz and colleagues not to indulge in self-doubt but fight with passion.

The SPD -- junior partners in Merkel's right-left grand coalition -- is struggling to restore momentum gained immediately after Schulz's nomination as leader at the end of January. An Emnid poll on Sunday showed Merkel's conservatives widening their lead over the SPD to 15 points.

Schroeder, 73, is a divisive figure in the party after angering the left with welfare and labour market reforms that many economists say helped to transform Europe's biggest economy from the sick man of Europe to its growth engine.

Schroeder also said that a Franco-German partnership of Schulz, a former President of the European Parliament, and French President Emmanuel Macron could revive an alliance at the heart of Europe.