Schroeder's party divided over link with leftists

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5964483&cKey=1122227423000

BERLIN (Reuters) - Members of Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) are warning the party not to rule out a link with the new Left Party after elections in September despite the chancellor's vows never to work with the group.

The SPD needs a miracle to catch its conservative rivals in the polls over the next two months and return to power in a coalition with its partner of the past seven years, the environmentalist Greens party.

But with the conservative lead narrower than it was several weeks ago, it now looks like the SPD, Greens and the Left Party together have a chance of beating Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their allies, the Free Democrats (FDP).

That has led some left-wing SPD members to urge the party leadership to adopt a less confrontational attitude to the Left Party -- itself an alliance between Gregor Gysi's reform communist PDS and a far-left splinter group run by Schroeder's rival Oskar Lafontaine.

[Kagemusha]

1. With Lafontaine in that no wonder Schroeder's sworn enmity

That's just simple understanding of the nature of sworn political enemies.