Schroeder election defeat

VOTERS in Hamburg have handed German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s party a stinging election defeat that reflected pent-up anger about his drive to trim state benefits.

Schroeder’s Social Democrats slumped to a post-war low in the northern port city they ruled for decades until 2001, while the conservative Christian Democrats surged to a majority in a campaign built on Mayor Ole von Beust’s personal popularity.