When Schroeder Thursday finished his speech at the Social Democratic party congress in Berlin, his colleagues and fans erupted into a storm of cheers, clapping and rhythmic chanting. For a total of 14 uninterrupted minutes, they celebrated the chancellor with standing ovations.

The wave of excitement might be a bit startling, considering the chancellor, just two months ago, asked for new elections in July by arguing he had lost the backing of his own party. The euphoria is also surprising given Schroeder's party floats around 29 percent in the polls, not much improved since July, and far away from its goal of becoming the country's strongest party: Merkel's Christian Democrats can still show off a comfortable lead.

"The current polling results can't be much of a hope to the SPD," Kai Muehleck, political scientist at Berlin's Humboldt University, Thursday told United Press International in a telephone interview. "But they don't have much of a choice but portray optimism."

Listening to Schroeder's speech makes clear why observers say he is best with his back against the wall.

With a gravelly voice and firing the entire arsenal of his formidable public communication skills, the 61-year-old steeled his colleagues for the final days of what is most likely his last campaign.

"It tell you: Nothing has been decided yet," Schroeder bellowed at the roughly 1,000 people present. "If we fight for every vote, then I am sure, we will reach our goal and become Germany's strongest party."

The turnaround that he envisions, however, has never happened. The SPD was behind in the 2002 election, which the party ended up winning, but not as much.

To draw those votes away from Merkel, the chancellor attacked the CDU/CSU and their potential junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats, as an alliance of "social cold," which would turn Germany into a dreadful place.

"They want to abandon the social market economy," he said. "They want a society in which solidarity has no place."

Schroeder attacked some of the rival's stars such as Merkel's shadow finance minister, the fiscal expert Paul Kirchhof.

The former constitutional court judge has been controversial in and outside the CDU for his tax reform plans. Kirchhof wants to introduce a simplified system of a 25-percent flat tax. Schroeder did not once mention Kirchhof's name, but called him "that professor from Heidelberg."

To the plans of Heinrich von Pierer, whom Merkel earlier this week appointed her top economic adviser and who is a proponent of keeping Germany's nuclear power plants up and running, Schroeder said: "Heinrich, you're making my blood run cold."

Muehleck said Schroeder gave a "good" speech. "Schroeder this time has hit the party's nerve by speaking of social justice," he said. "He hasn't done that in the past."

To the contrary, by supporting big business and pushing his social and economic reforms, the Agenda 2010 and Hartz Four, Schroeder has been accused of moving the SPD away from its socialist base.

The reforms have so far failed to spark significant economic growth, and despite that unemployment has fallen slightly over the past five months, analysts say a turnaround is nowhere to be seen. Latest polls have shown Germans are more than willing to accept reforms, but just how radical those reforms can be, voters are still undecided.

But do Schroeder and colleagues really still believe in victory? If they do, they might bank on developments that in recent years have started to affect German elections, Muehleck said.

"Traditional party alliances are loosening and voters are increasingly flexible when it comes to what party they will vote for, making more rapid fluctuations possible," he said.

An estimated 20 percent of Germans -- many of them from the economically troubled eastern states -- are still not fully decided where to put their cross. Schroeder, however, would have to grab nearly all of those to come out winning.

He can only stay in office with the SPD as the strongest party -- anything else would lead to his party losing power or becoming the junior partner in a grand coalition with rival CDU/CSU, with Merkel as a chancellor.

A grand coalition is an option that Merkel dreads and Schroeder has refused to think about -- officials inside his party, such as Interior Minister Otto Schily, however, have said the SPD should seize part of the governing power if elections bring about the option.

Muehleck said the Alliance 90/Greens, the SPD's current junior coalition partner, has not suffered as a party because of its involvement in seven years in power. That could be an example for a renewed SPD how to behave in a grand coalition, he said.

"If the SPD, like the Greens, gets the 'easy' departments where they can gather up bonus points, and the CDU takes up the tough ones, such as finance and economy, then being a junior coalition partner might not be all that bad."

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