Merkel says no issue can be 'taboo'

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BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel has weighed in on a fierce debate about immigration to boost her conservative Christian Democrats in regional elections on Sunday that could foreshadow the outcome of national elections next year.

Mrs. Merkel has voiced strong backing for Roland Koch, the firebrand governor of western Hesse state, who is campaigning for a third term by demanding tougher action against "criminal young foreigners" and calling on immigrants to embrace a German way of life.

Mrs. Merkel"s support for Mr. Koch marks a departure from her usual conciliatory approach as she prepares for a string of state and local elections leading up to the general election in fall 2009.

The regional campaigning is souring relations between Mrs. Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the center-left Social Democrats, who share power in an uneasy grand coalition.

The remainder of Mrs. Merkel's term is being overshadowed by deep divisions between the parties in key policy areas and fears of an economic downturn sparked by the U.S. subprime credit crisis.

"I think the pleasant days of governing are over for Merkel," said Jurgen Falter, a political analyst at Mainz University. "The second half of her term will be much harder."

Mrs. Merkel has defied a barrage of criticism from immigrant groups and from the Social Democrats by supporting Mr. Koch's demands for boot camps and faster prosecution for young offenders.

"There can be no taboo issues in elections. That's why Roland Koch put this issue on the agenda, and he has the support of the entire CDU," Mrs. Merkel told reporters last week. "The big parties in different ways closed their eyes to the integration of foreign citizens for many years."

Mrs. Merkel pointed out that 43 percent of all crimes in Germany are committed by people under 21, and that almost half those young offenders have an immigrant background.

The debate has divided Germany. Social Democrat leader Kurt Beck said the CDU was practicing "right-wing populism." The Turkish community accused Mr. Koch of "political arson" and the Central Council of Jews in Germany warned that the CDU would strengthen the country's far-right element.

Germany has about 15 million inhabitants with an immigrant background, who make up almost a fifth of the population. They include 3.2 million Muslims, the majority of whom are of Turkish origin.

Many are second- or third-generation descendants of the so-called "guest workers" — factory laborers invited by what was then West Germany in the 1950s through 1970s to plug a severe labor shortage as the economy boomed.

Germany hasn't seen race riots like the ones that shook French suburbs in 2005 and British cities in the 1980s, but immigrant groups complain that German society has been slow to integrate them, that immigrants are labeled "foreigners" and that they have poorer prospects for advancement.

Mr. Koch, who has won past elections with a tough stance on law and order and immigration, set off the debate after the brutal assault by two youths, a Turk born in Germany and a Greek, on a 76-year-old German man in a Munich subway station just before Christmas.

The man had asked them to stop smoking and they responded by calling him "German [filth]," and beating and kicking him. The attack caused a public outcry.

"Koch has touched a nerve by addressing an issue that worries many people," Mr. Falter said.

However, Mr. Koch's heavy-handed rhetoric, which included telling immigrants to stop slaughtering animals in the kitchen, has unsettled some CDU supporters and mobilized his opponents. Opinion polls show a neck-and-neck race between him and Social Democrat challenger Andrea Ypsilanti in Hesse.

Polls indicate the CDU is likely to have an easier time in another state election on Sunday, in Lower Saxony, where CDU Gov. Christian Wulff is expected to win a second term.

"If the CDU loses one of the states, it will weaken the party and weaken Merkel," Mr. Falter said.