Berlin - The Social Democratic Party (SPD) of German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroder has suffered a further electoral set-back, seeing the opposition Christian Democratic Union gaining up to 17 points in the Baden-Wurttemberg communal elections, Hannah Cleaver reports.
Voters electing town councils across the state heavily penalised the Green Party, junior coalition partner with the Social Democrats in federal government.
Ms Ute Vogt, leader of the SPD in the state, could only take consolation from the fact that the party there had not lost more. It went against the national trend that the SPD had remained reasonably stable, she said.