Information on the results of the early national elections in Germany of 18 September, 2005

These elections have been called by the German Federal President on the initiative of chancellor Schröder one year before the term of the red green government ended. Confronted with a dramatic fall in popularity and a long series of lost lander elections because of his neo-liberal economic and social policies, its brutal dismantling of the German welfare state, the chancellor took what he saw as the last chance to receive the voters’ mandate to stay in power. SPD and Greens made their "reform" of the German economic and social systems the focal point of their campaign strategy, presenting it as without alternative. They promised their parties and the voters a continuation of their politics. The conservative CDU/CSU and the liberal FDP answered with an even more neo-liberal offer in economic and tax policies.

Schröder’s initiative was a surprise attack at his political opponents, thought to prevent them by an extremely short campaign from unfolding alternative offers. That was especially meant to the two formations of the German Left - the PDS and the Election Alternative for Employment and Social Justice (WASG), the latter newly founded on the basis of last year’s strong protest movement against Schröders course. But within a mere three months the two organisations managed to organise their cooperation to avoid taking from each other the chance to overcome the five percent barrier and enter parliament. The agreement of their leading bodies to merge into a united political party was not possible to realise in such short time. The PDS changed its name to Left Party with the possible appendix PDS and opened its candidates’ lists for representatives of the WASG and other personalities of the Left.

The conservative CDU/CSU and the liberal FDP fought a confrontational campaign attacking all steps of the red green government brought about partly with their cooperation. Frightened by the large resonance the actions of the Left Party found with the public, SPD and Greens started a left-wing rhetoric, promising minor corrections of their policies, attacking the plans of their bourgeois opponents to further sharpen the anti-social "reforms" started by them. Sometimes the campaign looked like a fight between a virtual red green opposition against a virtual conservative liberal government, leaving the public more and more confused. When the campaign started, most opinion polls saw the conservative CDU/CSU near an absolute majority, the SPD was fallen under 30 %, the Left Party stood at about 4 %. The conservative and liberal camp was regarded by most observers as the potential winner.

The results of these elections have belied the forecasts of virtually all institutes and media. Unexpectedly, the losers were the two big parties. The red green government was voted out, but their conservative liberal rivals were not voted in either. Thus the German voters have clearly given a stop sign to the neo-liberal, anti-social politics of chancellor Schröder as well as to his conservative rival Angela Merkel, who explicitly wanted to carry them on in a sharpened version. The smaller parties could either stabilise or considerably strengthen their positions. The turnout, predicted by the polls to be much higher than in 2002, was 77.7 %, 1.4 % lower than three years ago.

The results were met with open disappointment by the enterpreneurs associations and by those right-wing governments abroad, who had hoped for a thorough change of government in Germany.

Although the conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union CDU/CSU came in as the strongest party, they missed their aim to form a right-wing coalition with the liberal FDP. Their result of 35.2 % and 225 seats (of the overall 613) is the third lowest in the history of the party - a further reduction against the lost election of 2002 by 3.3 % of the vote and 23 seats. The dramatic downfall within four months from nearly 50 % in the polls to this result is mainly seen as the responsibility of their chancellor candidate Angela Merkel, who was no match to Schröder as orator and media star, but is also blamed for political mistakes. Some of her steps - an announced VAT increase as well as the nomination of an economics professor, known for defending a flat tax of 25 % for everybody, as future finance minister confirmed the fears of potential voters of even more reckless economic and social politics under her government.

Disparaging remarks of CDU/CSU leaders including Bavarian prime minister Edmund Stoiber on the East Germans cost the party further votes in that region. Even these outbursts could not prevent Stoiber’s CSU from falling to a historic low in his native Bavaria. It got only 49.3 %, losing more than 9 % since 2002. With the lead over the SPD being so tiny, it is unclear whether Merkel will be able to collect a majority government coalition.

The governing Social Democratic Party SPD has got one of the worst results in its history. It has been further weakened in comparison with the 2002 elections it won with a narrow margin. Now with 34,3 % of the vote and 222 seats it came in second with a loss of 4.2 % and 29 seats. This way Red Green missed by far their declared aim to renew their governing alliance. Nevertheless in the final phase of the campaign the SPD managed to make up 10 %. It became the strongest party in all 6 lander of Eastern Germany. The SPD lost voters mainly to the Left Party and to the category of non-voters. By his intense campaign with reckless left demagogy chancellor Schröder managed to come close to his conservative rivals’ poor result, but could not overtake them. Nevertheless, he has announced his intention to form a coalition.

The liberal Free Democratic Party FDP is among the winners of this vote. Being low in the polls, it received 9.8 % and 61 seats, an increase of 2.4 % and 14 mandates, making it the third party in the new Bundestag. This party, which went into the elections as a coalition partner of CDU/CSU, nevertheless spoke out against Merkel’s plan of a 2 % VAT increase. Right-wing voters opposed to this step gave the FDP in big numbers their 2nd (party) vote to strengthen their position in the coalition, thus weakening the CDU. The FDP has excluded taking part in a so-called traffic light coalition with SPD and Greens.

By a skilful campaign the Green Party could avoid being sanctioned as hard as the SPD for the politics of the red green government. With 8.1 % and 51 mandates they are now the smallest party in parliament, losing 0.5 % of the votes and 4 seats. Some ecological achievements (planned closures of nuclear energy plants, consumer protection measures etc.) as well as foreign policy steps spoke to their favor in the eyes of their loyal voters. Besides, the socio-cultural clientele of the Greens has not been so badly hit by the government’s social policies yet.

The Left Party.PDS is the winner of these early elections. Under difficult conditions, with a new partner, being fought by all the other parties and large parts of the media, it reached its main goal to enter parliament with its own group. The party could more than double its result of 4 % in 2002. The 8.7 % of the vote and 54 seats it received are an increase of 4.7 % and 52 seats. The best news is that the cooperation with the WASG worked fully, bringing about a result of a new quality, going far beyond the sum of the two organisations’ expected individual scores. Highly important is the overcoming of the five percent hurdle in most of the country, also in 6 of the 10 lander of Western Germany. In the Western lander the party scored altogether 4.9 % of the vote Top results have been achieved in the Saarland (Oskar Lafontaine’s homeland) with 18.5 %, Bremen with 8.3 % or Hamburg with 6.3 %. In the East the Left Party.PDS received 25.4 %. Even in the lander with government participation, highly disputed among its followers, the Left Party.PDS got large increases: in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania 7.3 % (23.7 % altogether) and in Berlin 5 % (16.4 % altogether). The two only PDS deputies in 2002-2005, Petra Pau and Gesine Lötzsch, won their constituencies in Berlin again. The third direct mandate was taken by Gregor Gysi also in Berlin. 30 deputies have been elected in the East, 24 in the West of the country.

This election has changed political life in Germany. For the first time since the 1950s there is a nation wide political force to the left of the SPD. The Left Party.PDS will continue fighting the dismantling of the German welfare state, the redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich, the sending of German troops into military action abroad. As Gregor Gysi stated at a press conference after the vote, the party will support neither the neo-liberal politics of Schröder, nor of Merkel. Party chair Lothar Bisky, speaking for the National Executive Board, has proposed to the new parliamentary group to elect Gregor Gysi and Oskar Lafontaine their co-chairs.

The Left Party.PDS has not reached its goal to become the third force in Bundestag and the strongest force in the East of the country seeming possible after the first polls expressing less the hard realities than the expectations of the people. The party, the only one, whose programme has included many demands of trade unions, social and alterglobalist movements, will give the resistance to neo-liberalism and militarisation of foreign policy a strong voice in parliament, thus increasing its effect. It will be supported by the actions of the movements, which are expected to develop and grow, given the announced plans of all the other Bundestag parties.

The 3rd Session of the 9th Congress of the Left Party.PDS has been convened for 10-11 December, 2005 to Dresden. There, political and organisational questions of the party’s further development shall be discussed. Practical steps to push forward the merger of the Left Party.PDS with the WASG will go ahead as planned and as described in our info of 26 August, 2005. This will be a pluralistic party bringing together the different outlooks, experience and biographies of reformed communists, left social democrats, trade unionists, alterglobalists and other personalities of the Left, of politically active people from the East and West of Germany - a historic process which may be of interest beyond the German borders.

The question of the future German government is open. There are three main variants: so-called street-light-coalitions of SPD, Greens and FDP or CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens as well as a grand coalition of SPD and CDU/CSU. The postponed voting in one Dresden constituency on 2 October with an overall of 3 seats can bring no principal change of the general picture. Be it how it may, the Left Party.PDS will get a good chance to win more profile as the only consistent opposition force to the neo-liberal orientation of the German political class.

Left Party.PDS International Department
Berlin, 20 September, 2005

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