Berlin
The party of German leader Gerhard Schröder lost hugely in two state elections this week, in what the chancellor called “one of the most bitter defeats I have known.” Schröder’s Social Democrats lost dozens of seats in Hesse and in his home state of Lower Saxony to the center-right Christian Democrats. The chancellor was narrowly re-elected four months ago on a platform of opposition to the war in Iraq, but his popularity has been plummeting—along with the economy—ever since. German unemployment stands at 8.5 percent, and Schröder has already broken his campaign promise not to raise taxes. “If this doesn’t make the government realize that the economy needs a jump-start,” said Saxony opposition lawmaker Christian Wulff, “then it’s really beyond help.”
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