Schroeder vows to press ahead with controversial economic reform

GERMAN Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, humiliated by the third state election rout for his Social Democrats this year, vowed yesterday to press on with painful economic reforms to pull Germany out of recession.

Sunday’s defeat in the conservative stronghold of Bavaria, the worst SPD result there since World War II, showed voters are seething at his failure to tackle high unemployment and are sceptical about the biggest welfare state overhaul in decades.

But the end of campaigning in Germany’s second most populous state has opened a half-year window to get reforms through parliament before the parties get distracted by new elections.