Gerhard Schröder's ruling Social Democrats have bowed to public pressure and announced plans to scrap Germany's 54-year-old ban on national plebiscites

Gerhard Schröder's ruling Social Democrats have bowed to public pressure and announced plans to scrap Germany's 54-year-old ban on national plebiscites which would allow the country to join Britain and France in a referendum on the planned European constitution next year. The decision, taken by the Chancellor's Social Democrat Party leadership on Sunday, follows months of mounting public pressure for a nationwide referendum on the EU constitution in Germany where polls suggest 70 percent of the population is in favour. Franz Muentefering, the Social Democrat Party leader said his party would put new legislation before the Berlin parliament this autumn seeking approval for scrapping Germany's ban on national referendums. National plebiscites are banned in an attempt to ensure that the country remains anchored in parliamentary democracy. The memory of the Nazi era and Adolf Hitler's unscrupulous use of plebiscites to consolidate his hold on power led the architects of Germany's 1948 constitution to ban them from the political process. At present, the German constitution allows referendums only on regional issues and within the country's 16 federal states.