The PDS success in Saxony follows that in Thuringia and in Brandenburg. It is now said to be have at least 20% of the votes in all the former East German Laender, Prior to this election, the PDS was equal in votes to the SPD (just a little behind). Only in Dresden was its percentage of voters twice as large as that of the SPD. Now its percentage is twice as large as that of the SPD in Saxony as a whole. Here is the English translation the PDS have just posted on their website. Chris Burford London ________________________________________________ >From the PDS web-site PDS International Information on the results of the Landtag elections in Saxony on 19 September, 1999 PDS National Executive (September 1999) The Landtag elections in the East German federal state of Saxony have further strengthened the main tendencies of last week’s vote in Thuringia: an absolute majority for the CDU, an eclatant defeat for the SPD and a new success for the PDS. The PDS is the actual winner of these elections. It is the only one of the big parties with considerable gains in relative and absolute terms. Compared with the Landtag elections of 1994 it increased its share of the vote by 5.7 % to 22.2 %, the number of seats by 9 to 30. The PDS attracted around 140,000 more voters, among them 41,000 former voters of the SPD and 21,000 followers of the CDU. It succeeded in acquiring new groups of voters. This is first and foremost a result of the active and selfless work of the party’s members, officers and delegates in towns and villages as well as on the lander level. They have brought more competence to the party and won it the confidence of the people. The PDS has consistently put the social question in the centre of its political activities and the election campaign. The voters accepted it as the party of social justice. This goes more and more for the federal level too. With this result the PDS has sent the SPD for the second time (after Thuringia) - with more than a double share of the vote - to the third place among the political parties in an East German federal state. However, it was not able to break the absolute majority of the conservatives. As the strongest opposition party the PDS is now the challenger of the CDU. It has a higher responsibility for developing concrete and convincing alternatives to the government’s neo-liberal course. With this it also gained broader political chances. In Saxony the SPD suffered the 5th successive defeat in Landtag elections. Thus the Red Green federal government has managed to radically change the political map on the lander level within twelve months to the advantage of the CDU. The Saxony SPD has sunk to a historic low in its participation in Landtag elections. Its share went down by 5.9 % to 10.7 % of the vote, the number of seats by 8 to 14. The SPD lost about one third of its electorate, particularly among the young and the unemployed. One reason for this dramatic development is the massive refusal by the voters of the Red- Green federal government’s neo-liberal policy. The government itself has become the most serious obstacle to the necessary social, ecological and democratic reform of society. A second important factor is the lack of profile of the Saxony SPD and its leader who on the one hand curried favour with the CDU and avoided any serious debate on the performance of the state government, but on the other hand sharply distanced himself from the PDS. The reproaches to the Thuringia SPD one week ago that its bad result was due to certain advances toward the PDS have now clearly been proved wrong in Saxony. On the contrary, where SPD lander organisations are cooperating in various forms with the PDS there they have scored the best election results (in Saxony-Anhalt 35.9 %, in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern 34.3 %). Where they have opted more or less openly for a grand coalition with the CDU they have lost considerably (in Thuringia they got 18.4 % and in Saxony 10.7 %). The SPD federal leadership until now gave no signs of drawing conclusions from this election defeat for their future policy. The CDU with 56.9 % of the vote and 76 seats in the Landtag received a clear confirmation of its absolute majority. However, it did not win the envisaged majority of two thirds and had even to bear a slight loss of 1.2 % in comparison with its top result of 1994. It had to cede one mandate to the PDS. The heavy CDU losses during the National elections of September 1998 in Saxony obviously did not influence this result. The reasons of this success on the one hand is the general trend on the federal level in favour of the CDU, on the other hand the undisputed popularity of Prime minister Kurt Biedenkopf, a well-known former General Secretary of the CDU and rival of Chancellor Kohl. Speaking out in a populist manner with great public appeal for the interests of the East Germans, confronting himself sometimes with the chancellors Kohl and Schröder and even with the EU Commission he surrounded himself with the aura of a devoted father of all Saxons. However, unemployment has risen in these 5 years and in economic growth rates Saxony has fallen back behind Thuringia and Brandenburg. Nevertheless the orientation of the election campaign exclusively on the person of Biedenkopf has paid. Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) again failed to enter the Landtag. The Saxon voters confirmed their having no role to play in East German politics. The Greens fell from 4.1 % to 2.6 %, the FDP from 1.7 % to 1.1 %. The good news is that in Saxony no neo-nazi party managed to take the 5-%-barrier. The two parties The Republicans and the NPD got only 1.5 % and 1.4 % of the vote respectively. But compared with 1994 they won 1.6 % and, if going together, could with 2.9 % even have taken the 4th place in the party spectrum in front of the Greens. Among the first time voters the NPD scored 9 %. The Saxon government is obviously unable to prevent the development of a dangerous potential of right extremism, especially among the young. That is why there must be no lessening in the struggle against right extremism and neo-fascism. The turnout during these elections was 61.1 %, i. e. by 2.7 % higher than in 1994. The generally low level confirms the tendency of an overall disinterest in politics and political parties among the voters. The Landtag elections in Saxony have their significance beyond this federal state. Saxony is the most populated state of East Germany, the industrial heart of the region. The signals of these elections are contradictory. On the one hand the SPD was once more severely punished for its neo-liberal course. At the same time forces were consolidated which under a different party label follow a very similar line. On the other hand the consistent opposition to this policy was strengthened. How this complex situation will affect the further behaviour of the federal government and the Berlin elections on 10 October, 1999 remains to be seen.
