Krenz Wins Presidency as 26 Vote No : East Germany: The Communist leader is endorsed by Parliament but more than 5,000 take to the streets to protest the selection.

The East German Parliament on Tuesday confirmed Egon Krenz as president, but by an unprecedented divided vote.

Refusing to rubber-stamp Krenz’s selection last week by the Communist Party Central Committee, 26 of the 500 members of Parliament voted against him; 26 others abstained.

The no votes and abstentions came mainly from the Liberal Democratic and Christian Democratic parties, two small satellites of the Communist Party that in the past had been obedient to the wishes of the leadership. The revolt of the 52 was in stark contrast to the unanimous approval of Krenz’s predecessor, Erich Honecker, in 1976 and other party leaders since the founding of the state in 1949.

Several hours after the vote, more than 5,000 demonstrators marched through the center of East Berlin to denounce Krenz’s selection.

“Egon Krenz, we are the opposition,” the demonstrators chanted. “Parliament, Parliament, what a terrible thing to do!” Some placards proclaimed, “Egon, your election doesn’t count, because the people didn’t elect you.” Others said, “No Krenz, no free elections.”

The divided vote and the protest were yet other indications of the dissident mood sweeping East Germany. On Monday night, in several cities, there were massive demonstrations for political and economic reforms.

Krenz was elected to the post formally known as chairman of the Council of State, which makes him chief of state, or president.

In his acceptance speech, Krenz, 52, appealed to young East Germans to stay in their country and not join the tens of thousands who in recent weeks have gone to the West.

“Our homeland, your friends, your colleagues--we all need you,” he said. “Everyone who leaves us is one too many.”

He called for an end to the demonstrations, but promised an investigation into charges of police brutality in connection with demonstrations earlier this month, at a time when he was responsible for internal security.

Yet he warned that the demonstrations, “even if they are well-intentioned, always carry in this complicated time the danger that they might not end so peacefully as they began.”

Krenz said the government and Parliament should operate more independently of the party. And he said the legal system should not discriminate against the 60,000 or so East Germans who have fled to the West illegally this year. About the same number have emigrated legally.

He did not address one of the most pressing demands of the young people, the abolition of restrictions on travel abroad. Instead, he appealed for public support in overcoming the economic and refugee crises.

“Young and old, we must all work together,” he said.

After Krenz’s nomination last week by the Central Committee, about 1,000 demonstrators held a protest march in the center of East Berlin.

The police made no attempt to stop the demonstration, which took place in the same area where the police had violently attacked marchers a few days earlier.

Steffen Reiche, a leader of the small, newly formed Social Democratic Party, said Tuesday in a radio interview that the new East German government should separate party and state functions, as in Poland and Hungary.

Krenz, like his predecessors, is not only the head of state but also chairman of the National Defense Council and general secretary of the Communist Party.

In Bonn, meanwhile, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he has offered to meet Krenz “if both sides deemed it meaningful.”

In another development, the official East German news agency ADN quoted a factory manager as denying that his workers had organized an independent labor union. On Monday, a spokesman for workers at the Wilhelm Pieck electronics plant in East Berlin said that hundreds of them had bolted the official union and joined a new union called Reform.

But on Tuesday, ADN quoted the plant manager, Wolfgang Wernicke, as denying that any such group had been formed and saying that a single worker was behind the statement issued Monday.