Date: 15 Jun 1999 23:15:00 +0200
From: ASWAD-AT-anarch.free.de (catkawin)
Subject: Re: About elections, some numbers





First of all, thanks for the report. We don't get much info about the  
votes in the other European countries here (here being Grrmoney)... well,  
it's just elections to the European parliament and not the European song  
contest, isn't it.... ;)))

In Grrmoney, only 45.2% took part in the votes, which is the lowest rate  
of participation in elections in the hystory of the Federal Republic, so  
54.8% abstained from voting. Most probably the rate would have been even  
lower than that, but there were elections to the city councils being held  
in six federal states. (Participation was at 60% for the 1994 elections).

In Hamburg (where I live), participation was 37% and the local paper said  
this was the lowest rate of voters of all huge cities (age group 18-25:  
27%, 26-35: 29.9%, over 60: 46%).

I heard on the news that participation was only about 24% in Great Britain  
- can anybody confirm this?

The Christian Democrats in Grrmoney came out with winning 48.7% of all  
votes (plus 9.9% compared to the 1994 election), Social Democrats 30.9%  
(down 1.3%), Green Party 6.8% (down 3.5%), Party of Democratic Socialism  
5.8% (plus 1.1%), and Liberal Democrats 2.8% (down 1.3%).

The Party of Democratic Socialism PDS is the remnant of former Socialist  
Party in GDR. In elections in the socalled five new federal states (the  
area which used to be GDR), they gain quite a lot of voters, and usually  
turn out with about 25-30% of votes while they receive well below 5% in  
the "West" (to be represented in the parliaments, parties must gain at  
least 5% of all votes). This time, they also gained a plus of more than 1%  
in the western federal states which by them was seen as a result of them  
having been the only party to be against the war.

It is good to read that in Spain Falange got their arse kicked.  
Unfortunately, voters here feel different. Last week there were elections  
to the parliament of federal state of Bremen, and rightwing German  
Peoples' Union (DVU) managed to get in one representative. The Nazi  
parties also look forward to gain seats in the next elections to  
parliaments in various federal states.

Last night I watched a report on TV about a "new" strategy: apparently,  
rightwing parties - although they named one in particular, National  
Democratic Party NPD - try to form coalitions with the extreme left in an  
attempt to push forward the National bolshewist element of their ideology.  
NPD was successful enough to get a retired university prof having read  
Marxism/Leninism as their top candidate in one federal state in the east.  
The report also showed a person who was/is (?) chairman of a party called  
KPD (must be one of the remnants of the multitude of Leninist/Maoist...  
parties from the 70ies) speaking at a convention attracting both Nazi and  
left wing supporters. It was "great" to hear him talk about the common  
interest against capital they had....

There was also some commotion caused lately when a person called Horst  
Mahler joined the ranks of the National Bolshewists: he was part of the  
students' movement in 69, later became a lawyer and defended members of  
Marxist Red Army Faction, then joined RAF and went abroad.

catkawin