Berlin - Germany's Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, has warned the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) against taking a lurch to the right when it chooses a new leadership team today, reports Denis Staunton.
Speaking in Berlin yesterday following his Social Democrats' (SPD) victory in a state election in Schleswig-Holstein, the Chancellor accused the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), of attempting to take control of the conservative agenda.
"Our impression is that the CSU's real goal is to turn the CDU into an ideological appendage of the CSU. This is shown in their development of a diffuse European policy that would isolate Germany. If the dominance of the CSU is not stopped, it could lead the conservatives to lurch to the right in an unacceptable way for Germany," he said.