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Fringe parties see gains in German vote
Voters in two east German states angry over high unemployment and cuts in social programs handed a rebuke Sunday to Germany's two biggest parties, giving big gains to far right and former Communist groups, projections showed.
Though projections based on partial returns gave the fringe parties no share of power in Saxony or Brandenburg, the results were a fresh setback for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats — and for opposition conservatives.
"This has to be a warning for Germany's democratic parties," said secretary-general Laurenz Meyer of the conservative Christian Democrats after they lost heavily in both states, where nearly 6 million citizens were registered to vote.
Franz Muentefering, head of the Social Democrats, called the 9.3 percent taken by the far-right National Democratic Party in Saxony — almost on par with his own party's showing — a "disaster," but insisted their political influence would remain small.
"I am sure that in Saxony and in Germany they will not play a decisive role, and I don't think we should hold the neo-Nazis against the beautiful land of Saxony," he said.
Average unemployment in east Germany has been stuck at about 20 percent, nearly twice the national average, and voter analysis for ZDF television showed extremist parties garnered much of their support from the jobless.
Despite the shift toward the political fringes, Sunday's votes for new state parliaments left both regional governments intact.
In Brandenburg, the results gave Social Democrats and Christian Democrats enough support to continue a Social Democrat-led coalition for another five years. In Saxony, the Christian Democrats lost their majority but were poised to head an alliance with the pro-business Free Democrats.
But the anti-immigrant National Democrats were jubilant after a populist campaign in Saxony — one of the east's most prosperous regions — that included broad attacks on Schroeder's economic reforms.
"This is a huge victory for the German people," said Holger Apfel, their leader in Saxony.
The Party of Democratic Socialism, heirs to the former East German communist rulers, reaffirmed its role as the main representative of those easterners who feel shortchanged in the wrenching changes since the Berlin Wall fell 15 years ago.
In Brandenburg, the rural state surrounding Berlin, the PDS took 27.8 percent, up from 23.3 percent in 1999 and its best state election showing ever. They also gained slightly to 23.4 percent in Saxony.
The rightist radical German People's Union, campaigning on slogans like "German jobs for Germans first!" garnered 6.2 percent in Brandenburg, topping the 5 percent needed to stay in the state parliament for another five years.
Schroeder has implored Germans for 1 1/2 years to accept that pruning their cherished, tax-funded welfare state is needed to stop the steady rise of labor costs, spark the stagnant economy and fight unemployment.
But the results indicated that tens of thousands have lost faith in the ability of either main party to provide a vista of wider prosperity.
The Christian Democrats in Saxony lost more than 13 percentage points but retained 41.2 percent — a wide lead that has kept them in control of the state since German reunification in 1990.
The Free Democrats, their likely coalition partner, re-entered the state legislature after a 10-year absence with 5.9 percent.
In Brandenburg, the Social Democrats came in at about 32 percent and the Christian Democrats at 19.4 percent — enough to retain their "grand coalition" in the state and shut out the resurgent ex-communists. "Times will remain difficult," said Brandenburg governor Matthias Platzeck, whose personal popularity appeared to have carried the day. "I am very happy we achieved our election goal." |
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