Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and challenger Angela Merkel put the economy at the centre of their speeches at party rallies held in Berlin Friday evening, just 36 hours before polling begins, dpa reports. Schroeder attacked the U.S. social welfare system - and by implication Merkel's plans for reforming the ailing German economy - as polls showed the race for the chancellorship remained too close to call. Speaking to supporters on Berlin's elegant Gendarmenmarkt Square, the Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor spotlighted what he said were the negative aspects of the "Anglo-Saxon" world. "What is real poverty in old age? That can be studied in America, ladies and gentlemen!" said Schroeder to cheers from party faithful. Just a kilometre across town in the Tempodrom, Merkel hammered away at Germany's poor economic record after seven years under a coalition of SPD and Greens. "There are 40,000 bankruptcies a year, unemployment is close to five million and Germany is borrowing 40 billion euros a year," Merkel said. "It is simply immoral politics to increase borrowing like this." --more 2355 Local Time 2055 GMT
