Ah, to be loved again. "Let's welcome the chancellor of reforms," were the words that met a visibly tickled Gerhard Schroeder at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Things are looking up at home, too. For the first time since the 2002 election, a poll has put the ruling left-of-centre coalition ahead of the opposition. A year ago, anybody predicting such a change would have been laughed at. After a string of disastrous elections, the question was not whether Mr Schroeder would go, but when. Last March he resigned as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). In the summer, he faced huge protests against labour-market reforms. Pundits had him leaving this May, after another election loss in North Rhine-Westphalia, the heartland of the Social Democrats.
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