East German communists return to power 25 years after fall of Berlin Wall

Bodo Ramelow, head of the leftist Die Linke party faction in the Thuringia state parliamentThe Telegraph – by Justin Huggler

Germany’s far-Left party has returned to power in a state government for the first time since the Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, stoking heated debate about its communist roots.

The Left Party, widely seen as the successor to the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that once ruled East Germany, will head the government of Thuringia after the state parliament narrowly voted to approve a new coalition.

The new state prime minister, Bodo Ramelow, used his first speech in parliament to apologise to victims of the former communist regime, and said he wanted to “reconcile rather than divide”.

Thousands of people braved sub-zero temperatures on the streets of the state capital, Erfurt, on Thursday night to protest against the expected result of the vote.

Angela Merkel predicted the decision would be “bad news” for Thuringia, while the German President, Joachim Gauck, broke with the traditional neutrality of his role to speak out against it.

But the state parliament voted to approve Mr Ramelow’s three-way coalition after the Social Democrats, Mrs Merkel’s partner in the federal government, rejected an alliance with her Christian Democrats in the state.

The coalition, which is completed by the Green Party, will have a majority of just one seat in the state parliament.

Although Mr Ramelow grew up in West Germany, many of the Left Party’s leadership were senior figures in the East German communist party and some have been accused of links with the Stasi secret police.

Thuringia was part of East Germany until reunification, and many have expressed dismay at the former communists’ return to power.

“Old SED [Socialist Unity Party] comrades and Stasi informers run the state now,” said Rainer Wagner, chairman of the Union of Victims’ Associations of Communist Tyranny.

“Many who were in prison in the GDR [East Germany] are very upset,” the director of the Stasi memorial in Berlin, Hubertus Knabe, told Nord-West Zeitung newspaper. “They feel that the lessons of history have been forgotten.”

Mrs Merkel’s spokesman issued a terse statement: “It is government practice that the Chancellor sends each elected [state] prime minister her congratulations, and that, of course, is what she does in this case”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11276037/German-far-Left-party-takes-state-parliament.html

NC

8 thoughts on “East German communists return to power 25 years after fall of Berlin Wall

  1. The symbolism of the wall falling was an open declaration of war from the commie-joos. 1933 all over again only this time they had a bigger foot in the door. Duality is their favorite tool. Majority buys it as something good for the masses when the rewards are only for tptb. Doublespeak, but please tell me you’re not surprised, considering the source?

  2. People need to start realizing that another world conflict will soon start. Either started in the US or else where. We are on the brink fellow patriots. Prepare and settle with those with whom you cherish or believe.

  3. If the people want it, I guess so be it. If they do not then hopefully they understand and rise up. Either way we need to stay the heck out of it. IMO

  4. Took them long enough…amerikan sheeple don’t remember past yesterday…guess that will correct itself in a few years in the fatherland…

  5. It’s no surprise that they have commies waiting in the wings, like the helpful little homo in the picture. They scraped Obama off the bottom of the same barrel, and they have their operatives waiting to move into the leadership of every country that has a Rothschild-owned central bank.

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