Dresden, Germany - Opposition Social Democrats in Germany called Saturday for "amendments" to unpopular restrictions on social welfare, arguing this was the key to winning renewed public support.

A three-day national congress of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had elected a new national leader, Sigmar Gabriel, 50, when it gathered the previous day.

The SPD is coming to terms with the crash in its voter support to just 23 per cent in the September general election. Back in 1972, the left-of-centre party dominated public life, commanding support of 46 per cent.

Many speakers at the meeting in Dresden blamed the defeat on Germany's increase in the old-age pension age from 65 to 67, a welfare rollback which the SPD supported while it was part of a coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The new leadership has proposed that the party come out against the higher age of pension entry, without actually demanding that it be restored to 65.

Delegates also said Saturday the party ought to take a firm anti-nuclear stance, opposing efforts by the new Merkel government to keep nuclear power stations in operation beyond their phase-out date.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the former foreign minister who is now floor leader of the party in the Bundestag parliament, promised robust opposition to Merkel in legislative debates and said he was sure the party would recover.

"The party has shown it is alive," he said.

But Helmut Schmidt, a former Social Democratic chancellor of Germany, voiced doubts in a newspaper interview.

"They may not have broadly understood how much society has changed," he said in an interview with the newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt. He said looking after labour interests was no longer a main issue, whereas integrating 7 million immigrants was. (dpa)