The following is abridged from an analysis of the September 27 German federal election results written last week by Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism.
After 16 years, the era of Chancellor Helmut Kohl has come to an end in Germany. The results of the elections show, first and foremost, the desire of the majority of Germans for a change of policy.
The Social Democratic Party (SPD) won the elections with 40.9% of the vote and 298 of the 669 seats (an increase of 4.5% and 46 seats). Alliance 90/The Greens won 6.7% of the vote and 47 seats, down by 0.6% and two seats from the last poll.
The SPD and Greens together now have an absolute majority of 10 seats. For the first time in German parliamentary history, there is the possibility of a red-green coalition national government. The Greens are pressing for this, but the SPD is keeping all options open.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) received its lowest vote since the unification of East and West. With 35.2% (245 seats), it was down by 6.2% (49 seats). This is the voters' response to the neo-liberals' dismantling of the welfare state and persistent mass unemployment.
The CDU lost heavily in east Germany where the bulk of votes went to the SPD and the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). The Free Democratic Party (FDP), until now a partner in the government coalition, managed to win 6.2% of the vote (44 seats) to re-enter parliament, but this was down by 0.7% (three seats).
Socialists boosted
The PDS is the only party besides the SPD which won half a million new votes — 25% of its total. For the first time, the party overcame the 5% barrier across Germany. With 5.1% of the vote (an increase of 0.7%), the PDS and will re-enter the Bundestag with a group of 35 deputies (up by five). The PDS has thereby cemented the existence and acceptance of a political party to the left of the social democrats in German parliaments.
In East Berlin, the party defended the four constituencies it won in 1994. Among them, the victory of the young chairperson of the PDS's Berlin organisation, Petra Pau, has special weight. In a hard campaign, she beat SPD vice-chairperson Wolfgang Thierse, despite support for him from many Green voters.
The PDS once again won a disproportionate share of suppport from young people. Six per cent of first-time voters across Germany voted PDS.
The PDS's victory reflects its consistent work towards solving the many social problems in Germany, and in defence of the interests of east Germans and young people.
The PDS's electoral success is especially precious because it was despite attacks from all other political parties. The polarisation of the electoral struggle between the major parties, the CDU/Christian Social Union and the SPD, cost the PDS votes. Conservatives and liberals' campaigns constantly conjured up the ghost of a "popular front" between the SPD, Greens and PDS.
For their part, the SPD and Greens swore not to collaborate with the PDS under any circumstances. They concentrated money and heavy-weight campaigners in the constituencies where the PDS had a good chance of winning a direct mandate — without success.
The turnout of 82.3% was by 3.3% higher than in 1994. The PDS proved the predictions of many polling institutes and the media wrong by increasing its share of the vote even with this higher voter turnout.
The PDS mobilised more votes in both east and west Germany. There were particularly high increases in the east German federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the industrial centers of the region where the party's position was not, until now, very strong. The increases in Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse in the west showed that the PDS's day-to-day work on the municipal level is paying off.
With this election result, the PDS leaped another hurdle on the path to becoming an all-German socialist party. Its position in the west has been strengthened, with six deputies entering parliament via west German lander lists.
As well, the concept of open lists has proven effective. The PDS Bundestag group will consist of 28 party members and seven non-party members, plus 21 deputies. Sixty per cent are women.
Regional elections
On September 27, there was also an election for the regional parliament, the Landtag, of the north-east area of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This election was won by the SPD, with 34.3% of the vote (up 4.8%) and 27 of the 71 seats (up by four). Then followed by the CDU, which again suffered a dramatic decline, winning only 30.2% of the vote (down 7.5%) and 24 seats (down six). The PDS scored 24.4% (up 1.7%) and 20 seats (up two).
No other party managed to enter this Landtag. The FDP and Greens were reduced to near non-existence.
In terms of numbers, the SPD can now form a coalition with either with the CDU or the PDS. It has announced talks with both parties.
After four years of a CDU/SPD coalition, however, both the population and SPD members are disappointed with the results. Any new edition of that coalition would be a gross betrayal of the will of the public who, without any doubt, voted the CDU out of office.
The PDS is open to all options (opposition, toleration or coalition). One possibility is a policy of "toleration" like in Saxony-Anhalt, but on the basis of a written agreement. Whatever the outcome, the PDS's main decision-making criteria will be how well the arrangement enables the implementaion of PDS policies.
A very important result of these elections is that the parties of the extreme right did not succeed in entering either the Bundestag nor the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The German People's Union (DVU) and the National Democratic Party received only 3.3% of the vote between them across Gremany. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the DVU reached 2.9% (against 12.9% in the April Saxony-Anhalt election).
Since social insecurity, high unemployment and latent xenophobia among the conservatives, and sometimes even the SPD, continue, the neo-Nazi threat has not been eradicated. Their electoral defeat is a result of their present organisational fragmentation and the absence of a charismatic leader — but these circumstances may change.
The PDS expects the Social Democrats to form a red-green coalition. The PDS is willing to contribute to a stable new government and generally sees itself as a constructive opposition which exerts pressure from the left.
At the same time, the PDS is prepared to cooperate with the government if it is fighting unemployment, solving other burning social welfare problems, acting in the interests of the east German population or seeking a productive new approach to German politics as a whole.
The election campaign and the results have shown that the broader left in Germany cannot, in the long run, afford unproductive confrontation. The PDS is ready to work honestly for a new relationship between Social Democrats, Socialists and Greens. To this end, a dialogue to overcome old prejudices and discuss mutual relations and future reforms is necessary.