15 September 2004

BERLIN - Amid voter anger over Germany's sour economy and high unemployment, extremist parties ranging from the far-right to the former communists are expected to score big gains in eastern German regional elections Sunday, polls show.

Elections in the eastern German heartland come after failed moves to create self-sustaining growth following the wrenching lurch from communism to capitalism with reunification in 1990 - and the big parties are set to be punished, opinion polls say.

Eastern German unemployment is over 18 percent, compared with just above 8 percent in western Germany.

Leading the rightist pack is the anti-Semitic, anti-foreigner National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) which is on target to win at least 9 percent in Saxony state while the German People's Union (DVU) is tracking at around 5 percent in Brandenburg, polls say.

"German jobs for Germans first!" demand DVU posters along roads in Brandenburg.

Meanwhile, former East Germany's communists - renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) - could grab the biggest overall share of votes in Brandenburg which surrounds Berlin.

Here the PDS could garner 31 percent, compared with 29 percent for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) who rule the economically troubled state in an awkward coalition with the Christian Democrats (CDU) as junior partner, pollsters say.

A PDS victory in the Brandenburg would be stunning upset 15 years after the opening of the Berlin Wall built by its hardline forerunner, the East German Socialist Unity Party under Erich Honecker.

But even if it gets the most votes, the PDS is highly unlikely to capture the post of state premier.

Indeed, most analysts agree the present governments in both states - Schroeder's SPD in alliance with the CDU in Brandenburg and the main opposition CDU ruling alone in Saxony - are expected to remain in power, but with sharply reduced majorities.

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