the 5 percent barrier needed to gain a
seat in the Bundestag, with 5.3 per-
cent, up from 4.4 percent four years
c
ago.
Significant, too, is that the three
far-right parties did poorly, although
slightly better than four years ago. In
the former East German State of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — where
ultra-nationalist skinheads held a pre-
election march last week — extremists
split about 5 percent of the vote, mak-
ing it impossible for any of them to
earn a seat on the state parliament.
Four years ago, they earned only 1
percent.
On the national level, the right-
wing parties shared a small piece of
the voters' pie — some 6 percent —
with numerous other groups, such as
the Party of Non-voters, the Bible-
faithful Christians, the Anarchistic
Pogo-Party and the Pro-Deutschmark
Party, which is fighting the arrival of
the Euro currency in January 1999.
Unemployment was the biggest
issue on the minds of voters. There are
officially 4.1 million without jobs in
Germany, and while the average job-
less rate is 11 percent overall, it is
much higher in the former eastern
C: states.
Schroeder's SPD party has
promised to reduce unemployment
levels and return social service funding
that had been cut by the Kohl admin-
istration.
Early last week, talks already were
under way on forming a coalition with
the Green Party, which has a liberal,
environmentalist platform.
Within days, election billboards
will come down from their posts
across the county, and Germans, who,
according to observers want and fear
change, will try on their new era like a
pair of new shoes.
Despite the likely leftward shift of
the new government, there will not be
any change in Germany's commitment
to democracy, says Friedman. "The
SPD, which is a party with a lot of
democratic traditions, will continue to
protect these values," said Friedman.
"Protecting democracy is important
for every person in the society —
which means also for Jews." While the
traumas of World War II are not for-
gotten, a new era has begun — in pol-
itics, and in the relationship of
German Jews to their country, said
Friedman. "My parents came here
with suitcases packed ... [My genera-
tion is] living here with suitcases in
our cellars ... and the third generation,
they don't have suitcases."
)
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•
10/9
1998
Detroit Jewish News
51