Terrorists’ Ties to German City Sway Election to Right

Shaken by the discovery that terrorists probably plotted the U.S. suicide hijackings while in this liberal metropolis, Hamburg residents voted Sunday to oust the leftist government that has ruled for 44 years.

The apparent rebuff to the city and state’s vaunted commitment to tolerance and broad civil liberties was instigated by a rabble-rousing former judge whose threatened crackdown on crime had drawn little support until the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes in the U.S. and the investigative trail leading here.

Final returns showed right-wing political novice Ronald Schill--dubbed “Judge Merciless” for the draconian sentences he meted out from his district courtroom before being removed last year by Hamburg judicial authorities--grabbing 19% of the vote only a year after forming his Law and Order Party. With the conservative Christian Democratic Union capturing slightly more than 26% and the pro-business Free Democrats winning 5.1%, the trio of parties that vowed to topple the long-serving Social Democrats appeared ready to make good on a pledge to create a “citizens’ alliance.”

At least five men who were registered here as students belonged to a terrorist cell and have been accused of playing key roles in the hijackings and crashes in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia in which more than 6,000 people are believed to have died.

“They chose the right place to prepare their crimes,” Schill told a campaign rally shortly after the Hamburg connection was disclosed. He repeatedly told crowds that Hamburg’s foreign communities--which account for about 20% of the city’s 1.7 million residents--are responsible for 70% of its infamous drug dealing and 50% of its murder rate, the nation’s highest.

Schill has called for castrating sex offenders, medicating convicted drug dealers and deporting foreigners found guilty of any crime. He won his nickname--as well as his demotion from the bench--for imposing harsh sentences that put a mentally ill woman behind bars for scratching parked cars and sent graffiti artists to high-security prisons.

Sunday night, flush with his relative victory, the 6-foot-5 Schill repeated his intent to halve the violent crime rate during his first 100 days in office.

“We will put pressure on criminals and take this mantle of ‘crime central’ off the shoulders of Hamburg citizens,” said Schill, dismissing accusations that he will trample the rights of immigrants, foreigners and defendants. “One shouldn’t confuse being righteous with being on the right.”

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats received about 37% of the vote--up less than one percentage point from their tally in balloting four years ago. But their coalition partners, the pacifist Greens, tumbled from their 1997 share of nearly 14% to 8.5%, depriving the current Hamburg leadership of the majority it needed to stay in office.

Some uncertainty remained about the shape of the next government, however, as the Christian Democrats failed to get enough of the vote to form a majority with Schill alone. The two conservative forces would also have to draft the liberal Free Democratic Party into a coalition, but that appeared to be in the offing. Hamburg FDP chief Rudolf Lange, as well as national FDP General Secretary Cornelia Pieper, said they had promised voters a change in government and would deliver.

Schroeder’s party had been holding steady in preelection polls because Germans have been broadly supportive of his handling of the terrorism crisis and the debate about what role Germany should play in any retaliatory measures.

But the sharp drop in support for the Greens was directly attributable, analysts here said, to the pacifists’ defense of the liberal rights and privacy protections that are enjoyed by the majority of Germans but are open to abuse by the fanatic few.

Social Democratic General Secretary Franz Muentefering tried to put a positive spin on the results, stressed that the party fared well despite the overheated debate about internal security after the terrorist attacks. And he warned the Free Democrats--with whom the Social Democrats are thought to be pondering an alliance after next year’s federal elections--to reconsider their intent to bring into power someone who could undermine fundamental democratic values.

“The FDP must make up its mind what kind of government it wants in Hamburg,” Muentefering said. “Will Hamburg remain a great liberal city or will it have Schill and take on his image?”

Schill ran as a likely interior minister, promising 10,000 more police officers if he becomes responsible for police and public security. The leading Christian Democratic candidate, Ole von Beust, is considered the likely choice for mayor.