Germany:Germany's Left Party has welcomed the shift to the left of the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) as the first step towards a joint Berlin coalition in the near future.
The SPD's new "Hamburg Programme", which includes plans to roll back some Schröder-era reforms, was approved by the party's weekend conference as a return to the party's traditional social democratic roots.
However, leading figures from the SPD centre and right wing fear that the party is sending out the wrong signals, particularly with the programme's recognition of "democratic socialism".
The former leader of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to east Germany's SED and now called the Left Party, said an SPD-Left government was now only a matter of time.
"The party's new programme is quite left, so much so that people can't be sure if the statements are from them or from us," said Gregor Gysi, Left Party parliamentary leader to Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
"It will change the SPD. And when the SPD changes then there will come a degree of agreement at which we won't be able to avoid forming a coalition."
Despite the half-hearted attempts of SPD leader Kurt Beck to deny that the party is drifting to the left, the programme represents a dramatic break with the Schröder era and its unpopular reforms that cost the party a third of its members - more than 200,000 people.
Many disillusioned SPD supporters found a new home in the Left Party, headed by their former party leader Oskar Lafontaine.
Despite state-level coalitions, SPD leaders strictly oppose co-operation with the Left Party at federal level.
The SPD is under growing pressure to close the 14-point gap with its Christian Democrats (CDU) grand coalition partners ahead of crucial elections in two CDU-governed states next January.
After this weekend, those state election results will be seen as a vote of confidence in the SPD, its new programme and Mr Beck.
"Beck is doing what the majority of SPD functionaries want but that doesn't make him a voter magnet," said Manfred Güllner of the Forsa polling agency.
"He comes across as a likeable guy but even 40 per cent of SPD supporters wouldn't vote for him. They don't think he's got what's needed to be chancellor. The SPD has never had such an unpopular candidate."
East German-raised Chancellor Merkel rowed into the debate at the weekend, declaring: "We don't need a return to socialism by the Social Democrats. We had enough socialism in the GDR."