THE GERMAN ELECTION: THE VOTERS
Former Stronghold Turns Frustrations Against Kohl in Voting Booth
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
HALLE, Germany -- Most of the nightmarish chemical refineries in this eastern German city have been bulldozed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, along with most of the jobs that went with them.
But many of the former workers are still here and still living in the grafitti-covered high-rise apartments that the state-owned chemical industry built for them more than 30 years ago. This is a neighborhood with old friendships, strong community ties and meticulous housekeeping, surrounded by overgrown weeds and crumbling walkways.
It is also one where most people who voted Sunday were discouraged, disillusioned and desperate for a change.
"We are all unemployed, every one of us," said Irena, who came to vote with her husband, Hans, and two long-time friends who have been neighbors here since 1966. All were in their 50s and none would give full names. "If you are more than 50 years old, you have absolutely no chance of getting work," she said. "In fact, it's hard if you're over 40."
Eastern Germany played a central role in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's extraordinary electoral defeat Sunday, largely because of such frustrations. The East used to be one of Kohl's strongholds, thanks to his role in re-unifying Germany and pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the reconstruction here.
But with 17 percent of East Germans jobless -- and many more in government-paid workfare programs -- Kohl's time had run out. Early exit polls on Sunday indicated that Kohl's Christian Democratic Union saw its share of the Eastern vote plunge from 38.5 percent in 1994 to 28.1 percent. The opposition Social Democrats, led by Gerhard Schröder, increased their share from 31.5 percent to 36 percent.
And in a sign of just how angry many people here are, the successor to East Germany's old Communist Party, now called the Party of Democratic Socialism, saw its share of Eastern votes climb from 19 percent to 21 percent. For the first time ever, the former Communists received more than 5 percent of votes nationwide, thus gaining full status as a minority party in the German Parliament.
Here in Halle, people expressed their disillusionment in many forms. Doris Mey, a 47-year-old schoolteacher who came with her husband, Harald, said that, for the first time, she would vote for the former Communists.
"We are both employed, and our own lives are not that bad," said Mrs. Mey. "But many of our friends are jobless, many of them. And I can see the impact that it is having on children at school. They are disoriented and distracted. They know their parents don't have work, and they absorb their frustration."
Christiane Fisher, a physician's assistant who is also 47, said she would vote Social Democrat after having voted for Kohl in the past. "My son is in the military right now, and we're not sure what he will do when he gets out," she said. "He was a construction worker, but construction has slowed down so much and there are so many illegal foreign workers here who work so much more cheaply. I always thought things would be better, but they aren't. A lot of things were promised, but it isn't much better."
Several others here said Sunday that they had voted for the ultra-right German People's Union, known by its German initials as the DVU. At a McDonald's fast-food outlet just outside of town, two workers who would identify themselves only as Lutz and Frank said they had voted for the right-wing party as a protest against complacency in Kohl's coalition.
The German People's Union is one of three fringe parties on the right that have alarmed mainstream political leaders, especially in the west, because they appear to cultivate anti-foreigner hatreds of younger and more violent workers.
"I will tell you that I absolutely don't want the DVU to win," said Lutz, a 31-year-old bricklayer. "I'm making a protest vote, pure and simple, because none of the parties are doing what needs to be done." Four years ago, both men said, they voted for the Christian Democrats.
Had they thought about voting for the far right back in 1994? "No way, absolutely no way," said Frank.
Early returns Sunday indicated that right-wing extremist parties did not make significant gains, as many had feared they might. The German People's Union shocked both major political parties in local elections here in the state of Saxony-Anhalt last spring, when it defied all expectations and won 14 percent of the vote.
But that surge did not replay itself elsewhere in the East, and the party received only about 3 percent of the national vote.
To be sure, the billions of marks pumped into eastern Germany from the west have transformed even the bleak concrete tenements for the chemical workers. Some of the high-rises have new facades, with bright paint and sturdy windows. The parking areas are jammed with Volkswagens and even a few BMWs. And huge suburban shopping centers are just a 10-minute drive away.
Yet spiritually and emotionally, many people here say they see little of the "blooming landscapes" that Kohl promised at the time of German re-unification.
"My son works as a BMW salesman here, and he drives a BMW because it comes with the job," said Helga, 57, who worked for 14 years at a local bank before being laid off three years ago. "But he isn't making any money because he can't sell any cars, so he always comes over to our apartment for dinner."
Even some people who have good jobs said Sunday that they had voted against Kohl. Andreas Koerner, a mid-level manager at an electronics company near Leipzig, said he had cast his ballot for the Social Democrats because the government simply needed new blood.
"We just have to have some new ideas and more energy," he said as he waited for a train in Leipzig. "I am concerned about business, but my vote was partly out of concern for business. There are a lot of other people who feel that way too."
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
Louis Proyect
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