Leading German dailies from across the political spectrum are unanimous in their view that the showing by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats in Sunday's state elections in Lower Saxony and Hesse constitutes a landmark defeat.

There is consensus that voters delivered an unequivocal message on the need for economic and political reform, with warnings that Mr Schroeder may be forced to abandon social commitments long held dear by his party.

The SPD must learn the country's problems cannot be solved in a Social Democratic way Berliner Zeitung commentator

And a confrontation with the trade unions could be on the horizon, according to a commentator in one left-leaning daily.

Uwe Vorkoetter, writing in the Berliner Zeitung, counsels that the SPD will need to review their whole political and social philosophy, including the role of the trade unions.

"The state took on too much," he says. "It can no longer guarantee citizens what it had formerly promised. Gerhard Schroeder will have to join the side of the reformers in the SPD. He can no longer afford to grant the trade unions a de facto veto right against government policy."

Mr Vorkoetter argues the party will need to review the generous social provisions, including pensions and health care, that many Germans take for granted.

Gerhard Schroeder has now been forced to give the country a general overhaul - even if that means doing it against resistance from the unions Die Welt

"He will need to compel his own party to take a political course which Social Democratic traditionalists consider unsocial, unbalanced and neo-liberal."

He warns that if the SPD wants to stop its decline, "it must learn the country's problems cannot be solved in a Social Democratic way".

The right-leaning Die Welt agrees that the trade union issue is vital, calling the SPD defeat "devastating".

Describing Mr Schroeder as "this humbled chancellor", the daily says: "Gerhard Schroeder has now been forced to give the country a general overhaul - even if that means doing it against resistance from the unions."

"Whether in health reform, labour-market reform or immigration, the government can no longer work without the opposition. The only escape is to move forwards: radical reforms. Attack, not defence."

War fears rejected

Die Welt also accuses the government of seeking to use the Iraq crisis for electoral gain, and miscalculating in the process.

A black Sunday for the chancellor! Bild-Zeitung

"The audacious attempt to take people for idiots and go hunting for votes yet again with the highly sensitive topic of war or peace has failed."

"A black Sunday for the chancellor!", yells the right-leaning tabloid Bild-Zeitung.

"The public did not want yet another election campaign using the fear of war."

It describes the result as "the public's settling of accounts with the Red-Green government - and above all, a bitter defeat for Gerhard Schroeder".

"Germans had had enough of broken election promises, more and more new taxes, and higher and higher social-insurance contributions."

"The chancellor must finally pursue a policy that moves Germany forward. But can Schroeder hear it?"

For Berlin's Der Tagesspiegel, "of course this was an anti-Schroeder election".

"Whether the voters like it or not, the coalition must break up the log jam preventing reform. It must finally and courageously drive forward a consistent policy of reforms in the period before the next elections."

Glimmer of hope

Munich's centrist Sueddeutsche Zeitung sees the result as a protest vote against the governing coalition, pointing out that although such votes are nothing new, their vehemence is.

The situation of the Schroeder government is terrible, but reports of its imminent demise are exaggerated Sueddeutsche Zeitung

It warns of the danger that the opposition Christian Democrats and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Socialists could eventually gain a two-thirds majority in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament.

"Such a majority means: everything grinds to a halt in Germany," the paper says, with the two parties blocking every law passed in the lower house.

Yet the paper believes Mr Schroeder may well rise to the challenge and extricate himself.

"The situation of the Schroeder government is terrible. But reports of its imminent demise are exaggerated, " it concludes.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.