Christian Democrats in a state of shock after severest election defeat

Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU) were in a state of shock yesterday as they came to terms with their worst-ever election defeat. Chancellor Helmut Kohl repeated his pledge to step down as leader at the next party conference which has been brought forward to November 7th.

The Finance Minister, Mr Theo Waigel, surprised colleagues yesterday by announcing his resignation as chairman of Dr Kohl's Bavarian allies in the Christian Social Union (CSU). The party won fewer than 50 per cent of the votes in Bavaria on Sunday, a humiliating result following the party's resounding victory in a state election two weeks earlier.

The Bavarian Prime Minister, Mr Edmund Stoiber, announced that he would stand for election as Mr Waigel's successor and is expected to be elected unopposed.

The CDU parliamentary leader, Mr Wolfgang Schauble, is the favourite to succeed Dr Kohl as party chairman. But he could encounter opposition from the Defence Minister, Mr Volker Ruhe.

Mr Schauble has a strong regional base in Baden-Wurttemberg and is the only CDU politician who is more popular than the the Chancellor-elect, Mr Gerhard Schroder. But he is so closely associated with Dr Kohl, who anointed him as his chosen successor, that some party activists fear he would be unable to give the Christian Democrats a fresh face.

Others privately express doubts about whether the German public would elect Mr Schauble as chancellor in view of the fact that he uses a wheelchair as a result of injuries suffered in an assassination attempt.

Mr Ruhe enjoys the support of many of the CDU's younger generation and has a modern, managerial image similar to Mr Schroder's. But he is from Hamburg, in the Social Democrat-dominated north of Germany, and could not count on as much regional support as Mr Schauble.

One compromise being discussed yesterday was the possibility that Mr Schauble could become party chairman, and Mr Ruhe would replace him as parliamentary leader.

The shock of defeat was so great that few senior party figures were ready to apportion blame yesterday. But the CDU leader in Hamburg, Mr Ole von Beust, said that the party needed to go through a period of serious self-examination.

The combined CDU and CSU vote fell to 35.2 per cent of the national vote from 41.4 per cent in 1994, and Dr Kohl even failed to top the poll in his own constituency. CDU losses were even worse in eastern Germany, which backed Dr Kohl enthusiastically in the last two elections.

Some activists privately blamed the party's general secretary, Mr Peter Hintze, for the poor result, citing his lacklustre, old-fashioned campaign ads. But others believe that the fault lay in the so-called "Kohl system", by means of which the Chancellor controlled the party for 25 years through allies in every constituency.

Mr Kurt Biedenkopf, the CDU Prime Minister of the eastern state of Saxony, said that the party must now reform its leadership structure.