BERLIN (AFP) - Fringe parties including the far-right made strong gains in two former communist eastern states as voters dealt fresh electoral blows to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder`s Social Democrats amid ire over his economic reforms.
Schroeder`s SPD dropped to between 32.5 and 33 percent of the vote from 39.3 percent in 1999 in Brandenburg, the rural state surrounding Berlin.
In Saxony just to its south, the SPD fell to between 9.5 and 10 percent from 10.7 percent five years ago, according to exit polls on ARD and ZDF public television.
Meanwhile extremist parties profited from deep dissatisfaction with the state of the economy in the east 14 years after national reunification, with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) scoring nine percent in Saxony, far above the five-percent hurdle necessary for parliamentary representation.
In the 1999 election, the NPD mustered just 1.4 percent.
And the far-right German People`s Party (DVU) improved its score in Brandenburg slightly to between 5.5 percent and six percent -- up from 5.3 percent the last time at the polls.
The former communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to the party that ruled East Germany for 40 years, was able to improve its score in both states, profiting from its reputation as an advocate for eastern concerns.
The PDS tallied between 27.5 and 28.5 percent in Brandenburg, above the 23.3 percent it reached last time, while in Saxony, it improved its score slightly to between 22.5 percent and 23 percent from 22.2 percent in 1999.
Schroeder can nevertheless take comfort in major losses for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the chief conservative opposition party at the national level. The party evidently also paid the price for its support of Schroeder`s unpopular economic reforms.
The CDU sacrificed more than 13 percentage points in Saxony, where it had an absolute majority, to about 43 percent, and more than six percentage points in Brandenburg to between 19.5 and 19.8 percent from 26.5 percent in 1999.
CDU general secretary Laurenz Meyer admitted the results were a disappointment.
"We had hoped for a better result in Saxony," he said, blaming the "climate of insecurity and protest" for the scores.
Two potentially disastrous outcomes that pollsters had considered possible -- that the far-right NPD would beat Schroeder`s party in Saxony or that the former communists would top his SPD in Brandenburg -- were averted.
Brandenburg premier Matthias Platzeck of the SPD, who will likely be able to continue his grand coalition with the CDU in the state, said the election had been an uphill battle.
"We fought like lions," he said, adding that tackling the state`s deep economic problems would be an even bigger challenge.
"These will remain difficult times."
The results reveal widespread frustration in the east with enduring economic malaise and a chronically high unemployment rate -- 18.5 percent -- that is twice as high as in the west.
Schroeder has embarked on a major reform drive to slash unemployment and kickstart the economy, which has prompted mass weekly protests centered in the east.
Eastern voters feel they will be hit hardest by measures to cut social welfare benefits and induce the jobless to seek work while there is no sign of improvement in the labor market.
The gains made by the far-right are also a particular embarrassment in Germany, which carries the heavy weight of its Nazi past. But experts said neither party was likely to exercise strong influence over policies in their state.