GERMANY: ELECTIONS IN SAXONY EXPECTED TO REFLECT THE GROWING STRENGTH OF REFORM COMMUNISTS

Record ID: 639851

  • Title: GERMANY: ELECTIONS IN SAXONY EXPECTED TO REFLECT THE GROWING STRENGTH OF REFORM COMMUNISTS
  • Date: 11th September 1994
  • Summary: POTSDAM IN BRANDENBURG, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 11, 1994) 1. GV/SV VARIOUS ELECTION PLACARDS/POSTERS HANGING IN POTSDAM 0.23 2. GV/ZOOM IN ENTRANCE TO POLLING CENTRE 0.28 3. GV/ZOOM, INT POLLING CENTRE, WOMAN REGISTERS VOTE IN BOX 0.39 4. HAS/GV OFFICIALS SAT AT TABLE 0.42 5. SV/CU , WOMAN REGISTER VOTE IN BOX 0.49 6. SV PEOPLE VOTE IN PRIVATE BEHIND SCREEN 1.01 (CR/pc) Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 26th September 1994 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: POTSDAM, BRANDENBURG, GERMANY
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVAJD8O8RX1K28SEVKOB2C89E9X
  • Story Text: Polling went ahead on Sunday (September 11) in the eastern German states of Saxony and Brandenburg, where results are expected to reflect the growing strength of reform communists and the decline of the centrist Free Democrats.

    German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU) are expected to have an easy win in Saxony on Sunday, riding on the personal popularity of premier Kurt Biedenkopf.

    In Brandenburg, the Social Democrats (SPD), the main opposition party, is likely to clinch a similarly unimpeded victory behind popular incumbent Manfred Stolpe.

    These elections will be crucial for the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), Kohl's coalition partner in the federal government.

    The FDP is flagging after losing all its seats in three state assemblies and the European Parliament in the past year.

    The party risks falling short of the minimum five percent of the vote needed to win representation in parliament in Saxony and Brandenburg -- which have a combined electorate of 5.6 million -- and may face a similar fate in the October 16 general election, campaign strategists say.

    Good results for the reform communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), expected to win 15 and 20 percent respectively in Saxony and Brandenburg, could help return it firmly to the Bonn parliament in October.

    EXPECTED
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