Further PDS advances in Berlin

[Johannes Schneider]

Chris Burford wrote:
> Although the SPD did not receive losses as severe as expected, the latest
> round of elections in the east has brought further advances for the PDS.
I agree with most of your comments, but I would still like to add a few
comments.
> It is true that the PDS is a very different party to that of its forebear,
> the SED, and much self criticism has been done, but the picture is the
same
> as in most countries of eastern Europe: that the former Communist Party
has
> reformed and is still an electoral force to be reckoned with at least in
> left social democratic terms. The overall message is that there were
> certainly things wrong with eastern state centralised socialism, but it
was
> not all wrong. There is much to remain proud of.
But this a rather vague sentiment. It could mean nealy anything.
> Certainly the profile of electoral support is unusual,
> with a high proportion of the eastern intelligentsia voting for the PDS as
> well as the poorest of the workers.
I have to correct you here: Actually jobless people support the PDS to a
higher degree, wheras the CDU won most among blue-collar workers.
> The PDS has made a successful
> change to a type of bourgeois electoral politics, that are social
> democratic but with a critical *alternativ* edge. It repeatedly gets the
> message across often in the form of jokes, that it does not accept the
> limits of bourgeois electoral politics.
But actually the PDS works within the framework of bourgeois electoral
politics.
> The FDP gained no protest votes from the
> existence of the Red Green national government and slipped a further one
> percent to below 3%. This looks very ominous for its chances of continuing
> to be a player at all in national politics. Johannes has argued that that
> constrains the prospects of the CDU in getting allies.
This will open the possibility of a grand (SPD-CDU/CSU) coalition on the
federal level as well.
Johannes