Pressure mounts on Schroeder after poll defeat

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. But they tried to allay fears of political gridlock just as the stagnant economy, Europe’s largest, needs aggressive reforms to get moving again.