SOCIAL DEMOCRATS SUFFER REBUFF IN BREMEN VOTE
By Gisela Mandel
The elections held in Bremen, the smallest state ([Bundesland] in Western Germany, at the beginning of October, confirmed the trend already apparent in the previous state elections in Berlin, Rheinland-Pfalz and Schleswig-Holstein.
The fourth such election since the establishment of the "grand" coalition between the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands [SPD -- the Social Democratic party] and the Christlich Demokratische Union [CDU -- Christian Democratic Union], it registered even clearer than in the Schleswig-Holstein elections the general dissatisfaction of the SPD voters with the coalition.
The Social Democrats, who had held an absolute majority in Bremen for twelve years and had run the federal government there for twenty-two years, lost their majority. Although they retained fifty of the 100 seats in the state government [Bugerschaftssitze], remaining the strong-
est party, they lost 8.7 percent of the
votes they won in 1963. One out of six
SPD voters turned against the party this
time.
In all four elections this year,
the SPD has lost heavily, generally in
the party strongholds. The CDU gained
in all four elections, although only by
0.6 percent in Bremen.
In each instance, the reactionary,
semifascist Nationaldemokratische Partei
Deutschlands [NPD -- National Democratic
Party of Germany] made heavy gains, cross-
ing the 5 percent hurdle. In Bremen, the
NPD won 8.8 percent in comparison with
2.7 percent in 196% even though the lead-
ership had just staged a faction fight in
public.
But also the Stalinist-influenced
Deutsche Friedensunion [DFU -- German
Peace Union], running an old Communist
for office in Bremen who publicly pro-
claimed that he was still a Communist, got 4.2 percent of the vote, thus edging toward the 5 percent border line. This was accomplished despite unusual difficulties, the party being barred from television, radio, etc.
One thing at least seems clear -people in West Germany, especially those who have traditionally voted the SPD ticket, don't want a one-party system; they insist on having an opposition party.
The SPD is starting to reap the fruits of its "grand" coalition, its responsibility for the rise in prices and reduction in wages in West Germany, its responsibility for the armaments budget, the preparation of "emergency" laws and the setting aside of democratic and union rights, its gambling on strengthening the party through government subsidies and "majority elections" ([Mehreitswahl], its support of nonrecognition of the German Democratic Republic and the Oder-Neisse border.
The voters are turning toward parties of both the right and the left even though they have nothing to offer, lacking as they do even a domestic political program. Another sign of the dissatisfaction is the growing abstention to be observed.
All indications point to the gains that a new revolutionary-socialist party could make in this situation.
If the current trend continues, it is clear that the CDU and the NPD will gain in the next general elections at the expense of the SPD.
BERTRAND