New left wing party threatens Schroeder

A group of left-wing activists frustrated with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s drive to trim the country’s social programmes is creating a new party that could eat into the support base of the German leader’s Social Democrats.

Organisers of the Election Alternative – Work and Social Justice Party said they were preparing to field candidates in May’s elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany’s industrial heartland – a traditional Social Democratic stronghold that the conservative opposition is hoping to win.