German voters handed Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a record defeat in European elections today, venting their anger over the country's economic problems, initial TV projections showed.
Mr Schroeder's Social Democrats scored their worst result in 25 years of direct European elections, plunging to 22.9 per cent of the vote from 30.7 per cent in 1999, against 46.3 percent for the conservative opposition, public TV station ARD said.
The outcome, far worse than expected, follows 18 months of regional election defeats for the Chancellor as voters punished his party for welfare cuts and labour market reforms that have so far failed to boost Europe's largest economy.
With its slogan "Peace Power", Mr Schroeder's party had attempted to shift attention to foreign policy from domestic woes ahead of today's European Parliament election and votes in seven German states.
However, polls predicted heavy losses, albeit not as severe as indicated by the initial projections.