Merkel and Steinmeier face off on TV

BERLIN, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the rival in the race for her post, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, faced off Sunday evening in a TV debate -- the first highlight of a so far dull election campaign.

"There is a better alternative (than Merkel), and that's me," Steinmeier said in his first comment before an estimated 20 million viewers -- roughly a third of the German electorate.

Exactly two weeks before the German federal elections on Sept. 27, the two government colleagues faced a panel of four journalists who grilled them on issues such as the economic crisis, the war in Afghanistan and nuclear energy.

Merkel tried to score points with economic growth and jobs; Steinmeier tried to convince viewers that his party was fighting for more social justice.

The incumbent aims for a coalition with the free-market Free Democrats, while Steinmeier would like to form a government with the Green Party, with which his Social Democratic Party, or SPD, shared power from 1998 until 2005.

The chancellor appeared slightly more confident and composed than Steinmeier, whose SPD trails Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union by 11-14 points in the polls.

Two polls, however, indicated a draw in the TV debate: TV channel RTL put Merkel ahead by a 37-35 percent margin, with ARD naming Steinmeier a close 43-42 percent winner.

Four years ago Merkel battled Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in two TV debates that experts said went slightly in the incumbent's favor. But Merkel nevertheless snatched the chancellor's office, although Schroeder scored more votes than expected and heaved his Social Democrats into the grand coalition. Schroeder, however, was media-savvy and confident, and Steinmeier has so far been criticized as coming across as too bureaucratic. Merkel hasn't been much of a media star herself, but she has gained a lot of experience dealing with the media over the past few years.

The debate was a first highlight of what has been a rather dull election campaign here in Germany. That's in part because Merkel and Steinmeier usually rub shoulders in an awkward grand coalition government that has brought together two traditional rivals. It's also because both candidates are known for refusing aggressive campaigning.

They have been leading a quiet election campaign, with differences circling mainly around the issues of foreign policy and energy.

Both candidates were evasive and weak on Afghanistan, a hot-potato issue here in Germany.

Germany has 4,000 troops with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, but the contribution is unpopular. Last week, the mission received a severe popularity blow when it surfaced that a German commander had called in U.S. bombers for an airstrike that killed 30 civilians.

Steinmeier said that in 2013, he wants to have the conditions in place to start bringing German troops home. Merkel refused to speak about exit strategies but said that training of military and police should be sped up.

"Our goal is clear -- Afghanistan must have its own security forces. ... I have agreed with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Brown that we must work on this during this year," Merkel said.

Because of the cozy campaign so far, most Germans had rather low expectations of the TV debate.

That's true also for Lene Vollhardt, 25, a director from Berlin. In 2005, as a first-time voter, she sided with Schroeder and the SPD. This time, however, she was not convinced by the performance of the party's leader.

"I think Merkel won -- but mainly because she had a weak opponent," Vollhardt said. "Merkel was much more calm and talked more freely. Steinmeier's answers sounded too rehearsed. He offered no real solutions."

Vollhardt added that she would lend her vote to one of the three opposition parties, who are expected to perform strongly on Sept. 27.