Red Oskar blasts Schröder By Frankfurt Correspondent Patrick Bartlett German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is under attack for his party's recent disastrous election results - on the eve of his first anniversary in power.
His arch political rival, Oskar Lafontaine, said the chancellor's spending and welfare reforms were responsible for the party's woeful performance in five successive state elections.
The comments, made in his first interview since resigning six months ago as finance minister, were immediately repudiated by Mr Schröder's supporters.
But they will strike a powerful chord with many in his party. Internal rows within the Social Democratic Party over the deeply unpopular programme of spending cuts are now threatening the survival of the red-green coalition.
And as Mr Schröder prepares to mark his first 12 months in charge, Mr Lafontaine - nicknamed Red Oskar for his staunchly socialist policies - is to start serialising his memoirs in a newspaper.
Excerpts from the book, 'The Heart Beats to the Left', are likely to intensify the Social Democrats' internal battles over economic strategy.
Since the Social Democrats came to power a year ago in coalition with the Green party, their share of the vote has slumped from 41% to well under 30%, according to recent opinion polls.
But perhaps even more damaging than the political rows has been the government's failure to cut unemployment.
Nationally, more than 10% of Germans are out of work - four million people. In parts of the East, the rate is twice as high.
All eyes are now on next spring's state election in North Rhine-Westphalia, a powerful industrial region and traditionally a Social Democrat stronghold.
If the party does badly there, many commentators believe Germany's red-green coalition will collapse.
Mr Schröder's hope is that the slowly improving economy will feed through into more jobs and a boost in public confidence sufficient to avoid another electoral humiliation.