Germany's year-long general election campaign got off to a dramatic start last night with a surprise boost to Chancellor Helmut Kohl's hopes of retaining power. A state election in Hamburg gave the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) their worst result since the end of the second World War, leaving the party's new electoral strategy in tatters.
Hamburg's Social Democrat mayor, Mr Henning Voscherau, announced his resignation after admitting the failure of his campaign based on a tough law and order policy and a call for a referendum on the euro.
The main beneficiaries of his strategy seem to have been the extreme right-wing German People's Union (DVU), which looked set last night to win more than 5 per cent of the vote, enough to take seats in the state parliament.
Early projections gave the SPD 37 per cent, with Dr Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU) at 30 per cent, an increase of 6 per cent on their 1993 result. The Greens appeared set to win 13 per cent of the vote, little change from 1993.
The SPD remains the strongest party in Hamburg and will almost certainly lead the next government in the city, probably in coalition with the Greens. Dr Kohl's satisfaction at yesterday's result will have been enhanced by the fact that Mr Voscherau is one of Germany's few Eurosceptics. The chancellor yesterday reaffirmed his commitment to introducing the single currency on time in 1999 but called for a reduction in Germany's EU payments.
