Communists back in Berlin - 11 January, 2002 - News

The coalition between the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS, heir to the former SED of the German Democratic Republic) will share power with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the next four years in Berlin.

In times of crisis, people turn to those who they feel have their interests at heart and after years of experimentation with rightist policies, the sound old values of Communism are more and more recognised as having been wrongly criticised. People change but values do not.

Berlin has a massive public debt of 39 billion USD and the example of the excellent work performed by Communist Councils all over Europe will not have gone unnoticed in Berlin.

The Conservative CDU attacked the result as bringing back the phantom of Communism into Germany and the text which drew up the coalition made a direct reference to the deaths caused at the Berlin Wall, when East German border guards carried out orders to shoot anyone who entered the exclusion zone illegally. Although the zone was well marked and illuminated and although those breaking the law by entering it knew the consequences, there were those who insisted on playing with fire. The result was the unfortunate and lamentable death of 192 people, but representing just 0.02% of those who tried to enter the exclusion zone illegally.

Around 5,000 people managed to complete their journey to West Berlin successfully, while 3,200 were arrested, 200 injured by shooting and 192 killed, most of whom ignored the first warning shots and the second demobilising shots.

If the SPD and PDS form a national coalition at the Federal level, this could cause considerable political shockwaves in Germany and could caused a political upset for Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder in the legislative elections next October.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru