GERMANY: PEOPLE OF BERLIN AND BRANDENBURG VOTE ON WHETHER THEIR STATES SHOULD MERGE INTO A SINGLE FEDERAL STATE
Record ID:
328603
GERMANY: PEOPLE OF BERLIN AND BRANDENBURG VOTE ON WHETHER THEIR STATES SHOULD MERGE INTO A SINGLE FEDERAL STATE
- Title: GERMANY: PEOPLE OF BERLIN AND BRANDENBURG VOTE ON WHETHER THEIR STATES SHOULD MERGE INTO A SINGLE FEDERAL STATE
- Date: 5th May 1996
- Summary: BERLIN,POTSDAM AND BRANDENBURG STATE, GERMANY (MAY 5, 1996)(RTV - ACCESS ALL) BERLIN 1. GV TELEVISION TOWER IN BERLIN 0.05 2. LV HAS BERLIN CENTRE 0.10 3. LV OFFICE BLOCK WITH MERCEDES-BENZ LOGO IN ROOF 0.14 4. LSV TRAFFIC, OFFICES, POSTER ON CENTRAL RESERVATION OF ROAD 0.17 5. SCU ELECTION POSTER READING: DON'T COMPLAIN, VOTE (GERMAN) 0.20 6. MV POSTER READING: WHOEVER THINKS FURTHER SAYS YES (GERMAN) 0.23 7. SCU POSTER READING: NO, BECAUSE ONE CAN'T SAY YES TO BAD CONTRACTS (GERMAN) 0.28 8. GV'S VIEWS OF BERLIN, TRAFFIC, STREET SCENES, PEOPLE IN CAFES (4 SHOTS) 0.48 LANGERWISCH, BRANDENBURG 9. GV LANGERWISCH VILLAGE, QUIET PEACEFUL STREETS 1.00 POTSDAM 10. MV BRANDENBURG'S PREMIER MANFRED STOLPE CASTING VOTE 1.12 11. SCU STOLPE SAYING: THE PEOPLE OF BRANDENBURG HAVE BEEN THROUGH SEVEN YEARS OF TURMOIL AND SEVEN YEARS OF CHANGE. I FEEL THEIR BASIC POSITION TOWARDS THE FORMING OF ONE FEDERAL STATE IS VERY POSITIVE. ONLY A FEW PEOPLE I MET SAID THAT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES THEY DID NOT WANT A NEW STATE. I ALSO MET A FEW PEOPLE THAT WANT TO BE LEFT IN PEACE BECAUSE OF ALL THE CHANGES THEY HAVE EXPERIENCED IN THE RECENT PAST. (GERMAN) 1.43 BERLIN 12. GV'S GENERAL VOTING SCENES, CU BALLOT PAPERS, PEOPLE VOTING 2.03 13. CU/MV BERLIN'S MAYOR EBEHARD DIEPGEN CASTING VOTE, MEDIA 2.13 14. SCU DIEPGEN SAYING IT IS NECESSARY TO BUILD UP GREATER AND BETTER ORGANISED REGIONS IN EUROPE, AND LOOK FOR COMPETITION IN THE REGIONS AND TRY TO BUILD UP IN THAT WAY (ENGLISH) 2.38 POTSDAM 15. GV'S POTSDAM, BOARDED UP BUILDINGS, PEOPLE SHOPPING 2.53 TRANSCRIPT SEQ. 14. DIEPGEN, "IF YOU LOOK TO THE FUTURE AND TO THE NEW INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION IN THE ECONOMIC FIELD IT IS NECESSARY THAT WE BUILD UP GREATER, BETTER ORGANISED REGIONS IN EUROPE. IT IS NECESSARY THAT WE LOOK FOR THE COMPETITION OF THE EUROPE OF REGIONS AND WE TRY TO BUILD UP THAT WAY." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 20th May 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BERLIN,POTSDAM AND BRANDENBURG STATE, GERMANY
- City:
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVAEDATDSQ8BQOLSZFT9S8U3VF7B
- Story Text: - INTRO: The people of Berlin and Brandenburg have voted on whether their states should merge as cities in the 1990 Unity Treaty which reunited communist East Germany with the West.
------------------------------------------------------ The German states of Berlin and Brandenburg were voting on Sunday (May 5) in a referendum to decide whether to merge into a single federal state in the historic heartland of old Prussia making it the fifth largest German state.
Politicians have billed the proposal as a chance to slash administration costs and boost investment in the region, and also to set in motion a radical simplification of Germany's complex structure of 16 federal states.
However, recent opinion polls show many voters doubt that uniting the capital Berlin with the people in surrounding, mostly rural Brandenburg would benefit all concerned.
Early turnout figures showed that by noon (1000 GMT), 27.1 percent of Brandenburgers had come out to vote on a cool, dry day.
Polls have shown voters divided approximately 44-32 against the merger.
But in Berlin, only 24 percent had cast their votes, three points down on a regional election seven months ago.
Turnout could yet be crucial. For the measure to pass, there must not only be a majority in both states, but those majorities must also amount to at least 25 percent of all eligible voters.
The fusion of Berlin and Brandenburg was called for in the 1990 Unity Treaty which reunited communist East Germany with the West, and tore down the wall which had separated the capitalist enclave of West Berlin from its natural hinterland.
Berlin-Brandenburg would be governed from Potsdam, once the residence of the Prussian kings. Voters will not only decide if they want the merger, but also whether it should start in 1999 or 2002.
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