Disenchanted Berlin Voters Shun Major Parties

In a sign of growing disillusionment among both western and eastern Germans arising from the difficulties that have plagued the country in the wake of unification, voters in Berlin’s community elections deserted the two main political parties Sunday, flocking instead to extremist or alternative groups.

More than 35% of those who bothered to cast ballots at all passed over Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrats and the main opposition Social Democrats to register what analysts described as a protest by voting for extreme right, extreme left or environmental parties.

“We in Berlin were unable to distance ourselves from the overall national political climate,” summed up Mayor Eberhardt Diepgen, a Christian Democrat, after the results were announced. Late returns gave the extreme right-wing Republicans 8.3% citywide--more than their 1989 total but less than the 10% or more projected by final pre-election opinion polls.

In the borough of Kreuzberg, heavily populated with foreigners, voters deserted the main parties but went to the Greens, not the Republicans.

Former Social Democratic Mayor Walter Momper, groping for something positive from the vote, commented, “The most important thing is that the push of the Republicans has been stopped.”

Last month the Republicans managed a surprising 11% showing in an election in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Sunday’s election turnout of slightly more than 60%, extremely low by German standards, was also interpreted as a measure of voter disenchantment.

Turnout in the former Communist eastern part of the city was only 56%, a significant drop when compared with the 93% participation in East Germany’s first free elections just over two years ago.

By itself, balloting for the 1,000-odd seats on the city’s 23 borough councils would seem to have little national meaning.

But the size of the electorate--nearly 2.5 million--and the location of the nation’s capital, plus the unexpectedly strong showings of extreme right-wing parties in state elections last month, all boosted the importance of Sunday’s results.

During the run-up to the vote, both Kohl and Social Democratic leader Bjorn Engholm campaigned in the city, urging citizens to vote to head off extremist parties.

Sunday’s results constitute a setback to their efforts and underscored the unsettled mood in both parts of what many still consider to be a deeply divided country.

Western Germans feel deceived by Kohl’s early promises that unification would mean no sacrifices for them, while those in the east, where unemployment remains high and the future uncertain, like to quote the chancellor’s early projections that unity would leave no one in the east worse off.

In part because of such comments, Kohl’s Christian Democrats managed a paltry 14% in the eastern part of the city and finished behind the Social Democrats with a citywide total of 27.5%.

In addition to a rejection of both major parties, Sunday’s results reflected the glaring differences that still divide eastern and western residents 2 1/2 years after the Berlin Wall fell.

The former Communists, now the Party of Democratic Socialism, scored a remarkable 29.7% in the city’s 11 eastern boroughs.

In the western part of the city, however, the former Communists managed less than 1%.