25 May 2005

BERLIN - Supporters of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder expressed alarm on Wednesday as Germany's left began to splinter, reducing the government's apparently slim chances of being returned to power in early national elections expected this September.

Oskar Lafontaine, a former chairman of Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD), dropped a political bombshell on Tuesday by announcing he had quit the party to protest jobless benefit cuts and would help set up a new leftist election bloc.

Lafontaine is seeking an alliance with former East German communists the PDS and the Work and Social Justice Election Alternative (WASG), which won 2.2 percent in North Rhine-Westphalia state elections last Sunday.

Schroeder announced early general elections after his SPD was trounced in North Rhine-Westphalia by the opposition conservative Christian Democrats (CDU).

"Oskar's revenge - is he going to crucify Schroeder?" was the banner headline in Germany's biggest selling daily, the Bild tabloid.

Lafontaine and Schroeder have long been bitter rivals. Lafontaine abruptly quit the chancellor's first cabinet in 1999 after less than five months in office - apparently because he couldn't stand being number two. Since then the man dubbed the 'Saarland Napoleon' due to his stature and ambition has moved steadily to the left.

A popular and eloquent figure on the German left, Lafontaine could steal leftist votes crucially needed by Schroeder. The chancellor has already largely lost another key bloc, the centrist vote or 'neue Mitte', which first helped bring him to power in 1998.

Former SPD leader Hans-Jochen Vogel attacked Lafontaine in a Deutschlandfunk radio interview.

"All his activities will only help the conservatives," warned Vogel, adding that in a tight election even taking away 1 to 1.5 percent of Schroeder's vote could be decisive.

Michael Somer, chief of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB), also criticised Lafontaine's move.

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