Schroeder gets shirty as tensions mount

Mr Schroeder has accused the media of character assassination

The Chancellor's office in Berlin has been deluged by old shirts sent by angry Germans who declare that his tax policies have, quite literally, taken the shirts off their backs.

Anyone who thinks they can do it better, they can try

Gerhard Schroeder

A song lampooning German leader Gerhard Schroeder - the Tax Song (der Steuersong) has meanwhile shot to the top of the charts, at the same time as the chancellor has complained about receiving hate mail.

This is as unemployment continues to rise, and divisions widen between Mr Schroeder's Social Democrats and his Green coalition partners over the country's role in an attack against Iraq.

Little wonder then perhaps that Mr Schroeder boiled over at a party meeting this week, when he allegedly challenged anyone who thought they "could do it better" to take over.

The man once known as the media chancellor for his seemingly effortless charm is under pressure.

Getting shirty

His comments at a party meeting were interpreted by the country's media as a threat to step down - to escape from the problems that have beleaguered the chancellor, and the Social Democrats, since they narrowly won elections in September.

Even Eminem cannot compete with the Tax Song

Party officials have rejected this take on events, saying that the chancellor had simply been asking his troops to rally together.

The Social Democrats' ratings have slumped dramatically since the vote - with some pollsters noting the steepest drop in support for a ruling party since World War II.

In the two months since the party re-entered government, unemployment has risen again above the 4m mark, while reductions in social welfare payments have proved deeply unpopular.

The country has deep economic problems which, analysts say, the government does not appear to know how to get out of.

Tax hikes meanwhile, designed to appease a European Commission angry about the country's budget deficit, have sparked clear public anger.

Thousands of shirts have been arriving at Mr Schroeder's office in Berlin, many of which have been sent on to a shop that raises money for the unemployed in the western city of Bielefeld.

A website, www.aktionletzteshemd.de records 33,500 people as saying they have sent a shirt. The site also offers the shirtless the opportunity to buy a T-shirt sporting: "I am wearing this T-shirt because Schroeder has my last shirt".

The Tax Song, which attacks the chancellor for jettisoning his electoral promises so soon after winning the elections, is meanwhile spending its third week at the top of the charts, seeing off competition from mass-selling artists such as Eminem and Robbie Williams.