GERMANY:Voters go to the polls in two German states tomorrow in key elections that could shift the balance of power in Berlin's grand coalition and Angela Merkel's authority as chancellor.
Two CDU governors face re-election in the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony, but all eyes are on Hesse's hardline conservative leader, Roland Koch.
In the face of falling support, Mr Koch seized on a brutal attack by two young men on a Munich pensioner to focus his campaign on juvenile crime.
He suggested that the two perpetrators, of Turkish and Greek origin, were proof that "Germany has too many criminal foreigners".
It was a risky, populist move, one that attracted the same accusations of xenophobia as in 1999, when Mr Koch swept to power with a successful petition campaign against allowing dual citizenship, directed at Turks living in Germany.
But his juvenile-crime campaign backfired and protesters hurled eggs and tomatoes during his final campaign appearance in Frankfurt on Thursday night.
Final opinion polls suggest Mr Koch will lose his absolute majority, if not outright power, in Hesse.
In neighbouring Lower Saxony, the moderate, conciliatory CDU governor Christian Wulff expects a comfortable win.
For the Social Democrats (SPD), tomorrow's elections are a test of whether last autumn's shift to the left under leader Kurt Beck has paid off.
Mr Beck's promise to reverse some of the unpopular reforms of ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder fits nicely with the SPD's front-runner in Hesse, Andrea Ypsilanti. She was one of the party's most outspoken reform opponents; now the post-Schröder SPD agrees with her.
The SPD has fought the two state election campaigns on the promise of introducing a statutory minimum wage, a move stymied by the CDU at federal level.
The swell in support for Ms Ypsilanti in the last weeks indicates the minimum wage is a long-term SPD vote-winner; a study published yesterday showed that one in five Germans in eastern states earns less than €7.50 an hour.
Any significant swing to the SPD tomorrow is likely to bring the grand coalition in Berlin to a political standstill.
Meanwhile, Mr Beck will hope he has done enough to staunch the flow of votes to the new Left Party, comprising the reformed communist PDS and disillusioned SPD left-wingers.
Opinion polls suggest the party is set to enter the state parliaments in Hesse and Lower Saxony, transforming the Left from a regional to a national force.