German polls slash Green vote

Chancellor Schroeder (R) - on a roll for 2002 elections

Regional elections in Germany have boosted Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats, but left his coalition partners the Greens looking shaky.

The elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg have left the make-up of the two state assemblies largely unchanged, but the vote is being closely watched ahead of national elections next year.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Social Democrats have consolidated their hold on power, with 44.7% of the vote - a sharp increase from the last state elections - and they will form a coalition once again with the Free Democrats.

The Christian Democrats - in opposition both regionally and nationally - saw their worst result in Rhineland-Palatinate since the end of World War II, with about one third of the vote.

But the Greens faced the biggest shock of the night. They slipped to 5.2% leaving them dangerously close to the 5% required to even gain seats in the regional parliament.

The wealthy west German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has long been a stronghold of the Christian Democrats, who upped their vote and will remain in coalition with the Free Democrats.

But the Social Democrats, who made large gains with 33.3% of the vote, had their best showing in the state for almost 30 years, meaning that it was the smaller parties who lost out.

The Greens plummeted to only 7.7% and the far-right Republicans were kicked out of the state parliament as they only polled 4.4%, leaving them short of the 5% barrier.

Green disaster

The Greens did not hide their disappointment at what has become a run of bad results in regional elections since they joined the federal government in 1997.

"We would have wished for better results," said Claudia Roth, the Greens' recently elected co-chairwoman.

Trittin: sparked damaging patriotism row

The party has been harmed by a gaffe by Federal Environment Minister and prominent Green politician Juergen Trittin.

He compared a Christian Democrat to a skinhead for saying he was proud to be German, sparking a nationwide row over patriotism.

But Chancellor Schroder gave his backing to Mr Trittin, who is being personally blamed for the Greens' poor result.

"Trittin has made a mistake and he has apologized repeatedly for this mistake... We will not take part in this kind of witchhunt," he said.

But the Greens' freefall in the polls this weekend, leaves the ruling coalition looking fragile, and the Free Democrats are already positioning themselves to make a move to replace them in the federal coalition following the 2002 general elections.

"This clearly makes the FDP the third power among the parties in Germany," the party's secretary-general Guido Westerwelle said after the vote.

The Christian Democrats, while still floundering nationally in the wake of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl's financial scandals, took heart from the fact that they kept their hold on Baden-Wuerttemberg.

"I think we have achieved a great result, something we didn't expect a few weeks ago," said party leader Angela Merkel.

"After a difficult period, the CDU is again in a position to gain votes".