Regional election rout isolates Schroeder

GERMAN Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was looking increasingly lonely yesterday after a regional election rout compounded growing international isolation over his strict anti-war stance on Iraq.

Landslide defeats for his Social Democrats (SPD) in his home state of Lower Saxony and in Hesse on Sunday will make it more difficult for his

centre-left government to pass laws without backing from the conservative opposition. Leading Social Democrats called the SPD’s worst performance since 1945 in the two states a disaster.