E. German Drops Secret Police Plan

East Germany’s Communist premier today bowed to opposition demands and dropped a plan to form a new secret police force before the nation’s first multiparty elections in May.

“Through May 6, no offices will be created in this area,” Premier Hans Modrow said, referring to election day and the controversial plan. Members of East Germany’s 500-member Parliament responded with a round of applause.

As Parliament met to discuss the country’s woes, more than 200 East Berlin taxi drivers drove in a line to the Parliament building, honking their horns to show their displeasure with the government.

Plans for a new national security agency, including a secret police force, had drawn bitter opposition from members of Modrow’s coalition government as well as from the opposition.

The reformist Communist government last month abolished the hated Stasi secret police, but Modrow had said some kind of internal security force is needed to guard against alleged dangers from neo-Nazis and others.

Opposition leaders said decisions on the sensitive issues of internal security should wait until a democratically elected government takes over.

Modrow still faces further challenges to his leadership before the elections, including demands of proof that the old secret police apparatus has been fully dismantled.

In addition, some of the non-Communist partners in the coalition government oppose election rules drawn up by the Communists, which they say could hurt the non-Communists’ chances of winning in the election.

“If the law is passed in its present form, our party may not be able to stay in the government,” Christian Democratic Chairman Lothar de Maiziere said in an interview today with the West Berlin radio station RIAS.

The Liberal Democrats, another coalition partner, also oppose the draft election law.

Objections focus on a provision of the law that would ban campaign aid from outside the country. The provision is aimed at West Germans already gearing up to help the opposition and non-Communist parties.

Thursday evening, 3,000 pro-democracy supporters staged a noisy protest outside Parliament. “Down with the Communists!” and “Out with the Stasi!” they chanted. Stasi, a shortened form of Staatssicherheit, or “state security,” is the popular name for the secret police force.