German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has said he will seek early general elections in autumn this year after his Social Democrat party suffered a massive defeat in the country's most populous state, North-Rhine Westphalia.
Polls showed the SPD scored 37.1 per cent of the vote against 44.8 per cent for the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU).
This is first time the traditional SPD stronghold has changed hands in almost four decades.
Following the defeat, Mr Schröder compounded...
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