Germany's Former Communists Out in the Cold

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 officially spelled the end of communism in Germany. But in the following years, many of its ideals lived on in German politics, embodied by the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).

Sunday's parliamentary elections, however, sounded the final death knell for communism on the national level as it sent the successor to east Germany's communists packing from the parliament.

In a disastrous showing, the PDS won neither 5 percent of the national vote nor gained the largest number of votes in three constituencies - the two criteria needed to enter parliament.

The stunning defeat was a bitter pill to swallow.

"There is a need for socialist politics, but it appears we have not been able to get this across sufficiently," said a visibly resigned Gabi Zimmer, the party’s chairwoman.

Worst defeat in party history

The defeat is indeed the worst in the party’s 12-year history.

It marks the first time since its formation shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall that the PDS has been denied a place on the national political stage. In the wake of this election, the PDS had been relegated to the status of a local and regional party in eastern Germany.

In 1998, the PDS overcame the 5 percent barrier needed for representation and entered the Bundestag polling a record 21.6 percent of the votes in the east. This time, the PDS received only 4 percent of the overall vote.

The only consolation, if any, for the party is that two of its candidates, Petra Pau and Gesine Lötzsch, made it into the German parliament through direct mandates.

But the party is well aware that it will hardly have any influence in parliament with just two members who will henceforth have severely-curtailed rights.

The catastrophic defeat of the PDS also meant the loss of jobs for some 200 co-workers of the former socialists in the German parliament.

Erosion of party's traditional stronghold

Within a day of the crushing defeat, the party’s top brass were analyzing the reasons for its dismal showing especially in the east, the party's power base.

Poll results showed that the PDS won just a slim 16 percent of the votes in the east instead of the 25 percent that it was gunning for. The polling institute Infratest dimap reported that 300,000 voters in the east who normally vote PDS opted for the Social Democrats this time.

Own leadership to blame: Gysi

The party’s most popular politician, Gregor Gysi -- who resigned two months ago as Berlin’s economics minister --blamed the party’s own leadership for the disastrous poll result.

"The party leadership represented itself too much, it struggled too little within and outside the party and wasn’t emotional enough," Gysi wrote in the German news magazine, Stern, this week.

Gysi also wrote that the party did not have the courage to push through a more modern program past the conservatives in the PDS. The PDS needs to "rethink itself in a new way," he wrote.

The charismatic former economics minister of Berlin also shouldered some of the blame. Analysts say the party lost a lot of voters, especially in the East, following Gysi's involvement in a frequent flier mile scandal and subsequent resignation in August.

SPD uses PDS themes to its own advantage

Political analysts also believe that the PDS, which traditionally campaigns on social equality, pacifism and economic advancement for the economically-depressed east was overtaken on those points by the Social Democrats (SPD) with their unrelenting stance on Iraq and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s adept handling of the devastating floods in the east.

The Berlin polling institute Infratest dimap wrote in its election analysis, "the catastrophic floods brought the Germans together and with it weakened the PDS, that basically survives on the basis of tensions between east and west."

Eckhard Jesse, political scientist from Chemnitz said in an interview with the news agency DPA that the Social Democrat-Green government had cleverly used Iraq to drive home their pacifist colors in the east, a fact that cost the PDS quite a number of votes.

Party's future open

PDS leaders will now take their soul-searching on the party’s future to the official party congress in Gera in three weeks.

There leaders are expected to thrash out the PDS’ future strategy and decide on the all important question on whether the party should work on being a strong local opposition party in the east or whether it should strive to be back in parliament in the next elections in four years.

Former party chief Lothar Bisky on Monday offered some advice at what direction that discussion should take: "One has to reach the people, not just the (party) members."