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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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021389
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02138900.027
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 47WEST GERMANYBlitzkrieg by the Ultra-RightProtest votes give xenophobic extremists a strong showing
Beneath the picture of the smiling mayoral candidate, the three
words set in large print boasted a confident message: BERLIN WANTS
HIM. Smugly sure of a re-election triumph, Mayor Eberhard Diepgen
and his Christian Democratic Union were ready to settle back down
with their loyal coalition partner, the liberal Free Democrats, and
get on with the business of governing West Berlin. So when the
early returns began flashing on the electronic monitors in West
Berlin's city hall, ruling party politicians could only groan and
shake their heads in disbelief. Berlin, it appeared, did not want
Diepgen after all.
But a greater shock was to come. The Republican Party, a tiny
far-right grouping founded in 1983 and headed by a former SS
officer, emerged with a surprising 7.5% of the vote. The showing
not only secured the Republicans their first eleven seats in the
138-member city legislature but guaranteed the party two seats in
the Bundestag, to be occupied after the national elections in 1990.
As for the cocky Christian Democrats, they trailed their own 1985
performance by almost 9 percentage points, winding up with just 55
seats, the same number captured by their perennial rival, the
Social Democratic Party. The Free Democrats fared so poorly that
they failed to garner even a single seat, thus ending any hope of
resurrecting the current coalition.
The unexpected muscle of the extreme right set off alarm bells
throughout West Germany, where the Nazi legacy continues to torment
the national psyche. Within hours of learning the ultra-rightists
were to be seated in the legislature, 10,000 West Germans descended
on the city hall, chanting "Nazis out!" and "Ban the fascists!"
Over the next few days, the protests continued.
The near hysterical predictions of a resurgent right, however,
did not quite fit the facts. Just as the far right made an
unexpectedly strong showing, so did the left. The Alternative List
party improved on its 1985 result by more than a percentage point,
taking 11.8% of the vote and 17 seats. The returns seemed to
reflect less a sudden shift in the electorate's ideological
complexion than a general dissatisfaction with the larger parties.
Chronic housing shortages, spiraling rents, tightened health and
pension programs and a continuing influx of ethnic Germans and
asylum-seeking refugees all conspired to deal the Christian
Democrats what Diepgen called a "devastating reversal."
Franz Schonhuber, 66, the burly national chairman of the
Republican Party, capitalized on that disillusionment. During the
campaign, he called for the repatriation, in stages, of foreign
workers, an obvious reference to the 120,000 Turks in West Berlin.
He also urged tough measures to stem the flow of asylum-seekers,
proclaiming that a "multiracial society is a red flag to our party.
We don't want it." On election night, Schonhuber exulted, "Today
the Germans have shown again the need for a democratically purified
patriotism."
In Bonn, Chancellor Helmut Kohl did not take the setback
lightly. His Christian Democrats have lost ground in six of the
last eight regional elections. "It is a clear warning signal to all
of us," he said. Kohl pledged to reassess policies dealing with
refugees who seek asylum for economic, rather than political
reasons, but warned that expulsion of foreign workers would
jeopardize West Germany's standing abroad.
Diepgen, meanwhile, announced plans to create 8,000 jobs and
to build 30,000 new apartments by 1993, then set about seeking a
new coalition partner. Diepgen floated the idea of a "Grand
Coalition" that would wed the Christian Democrats and the Social
Democrats. But the Social Democrats are romancing the Alternative
List party to see what kind of deal might be struck with the left.
For the moment, city dwellers had to live with the one outcome that
no one had anticipated: an ungovernable West Berlin.