Left gains power in German elections

BERLIN - In an election that will transform the leadership of Europe's most pivotal nation, Social Democratic challenger Gerhard Schroeder ousted Chancellor Helmut Kohl and brought the left back to power in Germany for the first time in 16 years.

It was the first time in modern Germany's history that a sitting chancellor was voted out of office. Kohl's defeat reflected discontent with his failure to cope with record unemployment and a clear desire to dump Europe's longest-serving statesperson in favor of ushering a new generation into government.

"After 16 years, the Kohl era has come to an end," Schroeder declared yesterday to a cheering crowd of supporters at party headquarters in Bonn. He said his most important goal would be to wage a vigorous fight against "the plague of joblessness," which hovers at around 4 million people - close to 11 percent of the work force.

"The new center has triumphed and the Social Democrats have won it back," Schroeder said. "It will be our task to modernize our country completely and to unblock the backlog of reform."

Early results showed the Social Democrats taking about 41 percent of the votes, which would give them the largest bloc of seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, though not enough for an outright majority. Kohl's Christian Democrats took less than 35 percent, their worst showing in four decades.

Turnout was 81.5 percent of 60.5 million voters, up from 79 percent in 1994.

Schroeder, the governor of Lower Saxony state, said it was too early to judge whether he would turn toward the environmentalist Greens party to form a governing alliance, or pursue a "grand coalition" with the Christian Democrats. He said he would see how the final results affected allocation of seats in the Bundestag before launching negotiations with prospective partners.

"I want a government with a stable majority," Schroeder said. "But we'll decide all that in peace and quiet over the next few days. Tonight we will celebrate. We have waited 16 years for this."

Early returns showed the most likely partner, the Greens, getting about 6.5 percent of the vote. But Schroeder, who has moved his party to the center on economic and foreign policy issues, might decide it would be easier to enact major economic reforms in a coalition with the Christian Democrats.

The Free Democrats, who have played kingmaker for much of the postwar era and served as junior partner in Kohl's center-right ruling coalition, won about 6 percent of the votes but declared they would go into opposition rather than present themselves as an alternative governing partner.

The former Communists, known as the Party of Democratic Socialism, won three districts in Berlin and thus earned the right to stay in Parliament. Many analysts say their presence will make it more difficult for Schroeder - who has vowed not to bring the ex-Communists into his government - to form a working majority with the Greens, and will encourage him to seek a large and safe majority with the Christian Democrats.

For Kohl, it was a bitter rejection by an electorate that had sustained him in office for four successive terms, largely because he embodied their desire for stability without painful change.

Kohl, 68, was greeted by prolonged applause from disappointed supporters as he arrived at his party headquarters an hour after the polls closed to concede the election. He acknowledged that the Social Democrats had run a more effective campaign, and then signaled his retirement from politics by announcing he would not run for reelection as his party's president.

In a nostalgic farewell, Kohl expressed his gratitude to those who supported his causes, both at home and abroad. "It was a great time. We achieved a lot," he said. "But as democrats, we accept the decision of the voters. Life goes on."

Schroeder said Kohl deserves acclaim for achieving German reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and for working toward a more united Europe. He emphasized he does not seek radical change but rather will maintain continuity in many German foreign policies, especially a strong partnership with the United States and friendly ties with Germany's nine neighboring countries.

Nonetheless, Schroeder's victory culminates a dramatic transformation in Europe's political landscape that could bring significant policy changes in the coming years now that left-of-center parties govern Europe's four largest countries. Only three years ago, conservative parties were firmly in power in Britain, France, Italy and Germany.

Schroeder has pledged that principles of "social justice" will determine the thrust of his economic policies. The Social Democrats have vowed to restore some of the cuts in pensions and sick pay that Kohl's government made as the first modest steps toward reforming the nation's generous social welfare programs. Critics charge the programs are handicapping German competitiveness in the global economy.

That could signal bad news for Germany's business sector, which has been pleading for greater tax relief and a loosening of the country's rigid labor laws, which have made production costs in Germany among the highest in the world.

In contrast to Kohl, Schroeder supports creating a political counterweight to the newly created European Central Bank. He has backed a proposal to create an EU advisory council that could lobby for lower interest rates - even at the risk of higher inflation - in order to promote faster economic growth and new jobs.

The Social Democrats have promised to revise Germany's immigration policy to make it easier for many of the country's 7 million foreigners to become German citizens. They also want the EU to develop a common policy to accommodate a growing influx to the EU of refugees from the Balkans and other trouble spots, more than half of whom wind up in Germany.

Despite promises of continuity in foreign policy, Schroeder has already signaled he would proceed more cautiously with the expansion of the European Union into central Europe, fearing that an influx of Polish workers could destabilize Germany's economy.

Schroeder has been distinctly cool toward Russian President Boris Yeltsin and said Kohl made a serious mistake by investing too much in his friendship with the ailing Russian leader. He also might cultivate closer relations with Britain and de-emphasize the primary status that Kohl accorded France in his desire to have a powerful Bonn-Paris axis at the center of EU policy.

09-28-98