Eberhard Diepgen, Berlin's Mayor and Christian Democratic Party (CDU) top candidate for the Berlin state elections, smiles after casting his vote in Berlin October 10. Opinion polls see Diepgen as winner of the elections. The Social Democrats of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder face another defeat in a state election on Sunday when voters in the capital, Berlin, cast ballots for a new legislature. Unpopular austerity measures, frustration over the Schroeder government's zigzag course and an inept local campaign have combined to push the SPD to a distant second in Berlin behind the conservative Christian Democrats in opinion surveys.

RKR