German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder vowed to press ahead with unpopular reforms on Sunday as he bowed out as party leader of his Social Democrats.
Schroeder made the surprise announcement he would quit the party role to focus on pushing through his reforms last month.
On Sunday he formally handed the chairmanship of the SPD to ally Franz Muentefering at a congress overshadowed by recent left-wing attempts to form a breakaway party.
In a strong vote of confidence, the more than 500 delegates gave Muentefering 95.1 percent backing, significantly more than the 80.8 percent Schroeder won at a congress last November.
Although Schroeder is stepping down as party leader he remains Chancellor and said last week he would seek a third term in office.
Muentefering is more popular with the restless rank-and-file and Schroeder hopes he will unite the SPD behind welfare cuts that have tipped the centre-left party into a crisis of confidence.
"Franz and I agree that we will stick to our course. There will be no change to what has been agreed," Schroeder, coming close to tears, told the party whose hearts he was never able to win over.
Muentefering, who won rapturous applause for his speech in which he backed reforms and vowed to help Schroeder win the 2006 election, found simple words to rally the party.
"Opposition is part of a functioning democracy but being in the opposition is crap so let's try to avoid it," he said.
DOUBTS ON REFORM: Schroeder embarked on his "Agenda 2010" reforms a year ago to haul Europe's largest economy out of stagnation and cope with the cost of caring for a population set to become the world's oldest in coming decades.
He has incensed the left wing of the SPD and traditional trade union allies by raising prescription charges, cutting jobless benefits, freezing pensions and making it easier for firms to fire people. France and Italy plan similar measures.
Party leaders moved last week to expel six left-wingers who have threatened to form their own party unless the SPD drops reforms they deem unfair on the weak.
Hans-Jochen Vogel, a former SPD leader, said: "Just 0.5 percent or one percent of the vote for such a splinter party could be enough to evict the SPD from power for years." Schroeder won the 2002 general election by just 10,000 votes.
Doubts about the government's commitment to keep up the reform pace have risen since Schroeder announced his resignation last month.
"After the resignation of Schroeder as party chairman of the SPD, it has become more and more clear that further reforms are not at the top of this government's agenda," bankers at HVB Group said in a research note last week.
If reforms don't continue, unemployment could double to 8.5 million by 2050, HVB said.
But the SPD has been spooked by a string of election routs and a persistent 20-point lag behind the opposition conservatives for the best part of a year.
The setbacks have dented Schroeder's image as an election-winner, his main hold on the party where many think him too slick and media-savvy to represent its Socialist soul.
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