German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder has suffered a humiliating loss of authority with yesterday's rout in two state elections.
Voters in his home state of Lower Saxony and in Hesse inflicted big defeats on his Social Democrats (SDP) as anger over mass unemployment, near-recession and unpopular tax rises outweighed broad support for stance opposing war in Iraq.
The SPD suffered its worst election results in the two states since 1945. It slumped 14.5 points to 33.4 per cent in Lower Saxony, losing power to the Christian Democrats, which jumped 12.4 points to 48.3 per cent and is set to form a government with the liberal Free Democrats.
In Hesse, the SPD lost 10.3 points to 29.1 per cent compared with 39.4 per cent in the last state election in 1999, according to provisional official results.
The polls were the first test of public sentiment since Mr Schroeder's centre-left coalition of SPD and Greens was re-elected last September.
The rout will provoke a struggle between left-wingers and moderates in the SPD, with the outcome determining whether the stagnant economy - Europe's largest - can be reformed effectively in coming years, analysts said.