Kohl’s Party Loses in North German Vote : State Election Results a Victory for Victim of ‘Dirty Tricks’ Campaign

The ruling Christian Democratic Union suffered a sharp defeat in Sunday’s parliamentary election in West Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, where the party had been at the center of a major political scandal.

The outcome was a clear victory for the state’s Social Democratic leader and parliamentary candidate, Bjoern Engholm, 48, victim of a political “dirty tricks” campaign that preceded state elections last September.

Official provisional results showed the conservative Christian Democrats, the party of federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl, losing control of the mainly farming state for the first time in nearly 38 years.

The opposition Social Democratic Party gained outright control of the state Parliament in Kiel with an estimated 54.8% of the vote, far outdistancing the Christian Democrats, who polled 33.3%.

The Free Democrats, with whom the Christian Democrats had hoped to form a coalition, failed to gather the necessary 5% to gain representation in the state Parliament, garnering only 4.6%.

The projections showed that the Social Democrats will win nine seats to take 45 seats in the 74-seat assembly. The Christian Democrats lost five seats, leaving them with 28. The remaining seat went to the South Schleswig Voters’s Assn., which represents the Danish-speaking minority.

Greens Fail Hurdle

The radical, environmentalist Greens party also failed to clear the 5% barrier, polling only 2.8% of the vote.

While some commentators saw the result as a further measure of dissatisfaction with Kohl’s less-than-strong leadership in Bonn, most observers viewed the outcome as a direct result of the so-called Barschel scandal.

This occurred during the campaign last September, when the leader of the state’s Christian Democrats, Uwe Barschel, gave his word that he had not conducted a “dirty tricks” drive against Engholm, the opposition leader.

The September voting results left no party with an overall majority, the Christian Democrats were unable to form a coalition with the Free Democrats because of the shock from the Barschel case--and a new election was called.

After the September voting, Barschel was soon revealed to have ordered private detectives to spy on Engholm, seeking personal information for use against him in the campaign, and to have tipped off tax authorities that Engholm was delinquent.

Found Dead in Bathtub

Barschel denied any complicity and went on vacation abroad. He traveled to Switzerland, where he was found dead in the bathtub of a Geneva hotel room, and Swiss authorities said he had apparently committed suicide.

The scandal hurt Kohl by implication, as national leader of the Christian Democrats, and it severely damaged the political future of federal Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg, who was a leader of the party in Schleswig-Holstein and Barschel’s mentor.

Commentators said Sunday’s outcome will provide a much-needed boost to the fortunes of the Social Democrats.