The former German finance minister and Social Democratic Party chairman, Mr Oskar Lafontaine, pointed the finger of blame for the ruling party's recent electoral defeats squarely at the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, yesterday.
In his first interview since his shock resignation from all political posts in March, Mr Lafontaine said reforms introduced since his departure - including state spending cuts and welfare reforms - had caused the party's slump in opinion polls and recent heavy defeats in state elections.
"Of course one could have prevented the election defeats by continuing with the policies of the [government's] first months," he told the newspaper, Welt am Sonntag.
Mr Lafontaine, who gave up his ambitions to be chancellor after recognising the more realistic chances of the telegenic and then popular Mr Schroder, said he left because of fundamental differences with the more centrist Mr Schroder.
"I gave up my [political] offices because I simply did not agree with Gerhard Schroder on issues of political style and political content," he said. At the time of his departure there had been a series of decisions made that he considered wrong and did not want to be held responsible for.
The monthly Politbarometer poll of 1,300 voters carried out for ZDF television showed on Friday the SPD with just 28 per cent of the national vote, compared with 40.9 per cent a year ago.
The main conservative opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union, ousted from power after 16 years by the SPD in September 1998, got 56 per cent.
Mr Lafontaine did not rule out the possibility that he may return to active politics but said that in the meantime he intended his voice to be heard in the political debate. "I will of course involve myself in the public debate and fight for the policies which I consider correct," he said.
Nicknamed "Red Oskar" for his staunchly socialist beliefs and demand-side orientated Keynesian economics, Mr Lafontaine had kept a stony silence since leaving politics to spend time with his wife and young son, saying only the "team spirit" in the red-green coalition government had not been what it should.
Mr Lafontaine's return to the fray comes just weeks before his book, The Heart Beats to the Left, is published. His outspoken criticism of Mr Schroder is bound to be sweet music to the ears of the party's traditional left.
Mr Schroder's allies said on Saturday, ahead of the interview's publication, that Mr Lafontaine did not deserve to be taken seriously after walking out and dismissed speculation his return to the public eye could harm the Chancellor.
"No one has to shake with fear," said Mr Gerhard Glogowski, SPD state premier in Lower Saxony.
"It is his final chapter," said a government spokesman, Mr Uwe-Karsten Heye, in an interview with Die Rheinpfalz.
Even trade unionists said Mr Lafontaine was no longer missed, although the DGB leader, Mr Dieter Schulte, said in Bildam Sonntag that Mr Schroder had to put more emphasis on social equality. Many SPD members and political commentators blame Mr Lafontaine for much of the party's decline in popularity.
The Social Democrats managed to hang on to a long-held mayor post in their traditional bastion of Dortmund yesterday, a television exit poll showed. Two weeks ago the SPD lost control of the council.