
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 24, 1990                   TAG: 9003262159
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REUNIFICATION/ GERMANS VOTE FOR CHANGE

WHEN East Germans voted on Sunday, they said with their ballots what they have been saying with their feet: They want change. They want to be West Germans, or, more accurately, they want to be Germans.

Before the October protests, the idea of free East German parliamentary elections was unthinkable. But in the current climate of high-speed political change, yesterday's certainty is today's albatross. Consider:

In the fall, the New Forum movement led the protests that toppled the hard-line Communist government. Its members fought and bled in the streets. But it was never a significant force in the election campaign that followed.

The Christian Democrats, thought of as yes men and lackeys when the Communists were in power, are now considered champions of democracy. That remarkable turnaround seems to have come about because West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a Christian Democrat, read the mood of the East Germans so accurately. He campaigned with a Christian Democratic coalition, the Alliance for Germany, on a platform of quick reunification.

The Social Democrats favored reunification, but more cautiously. They lost ground when the campaign polarized. The disorganized left supported a "German Democratic Republic motherland" while the center-right forces called for "Germany, a united fatherland."

The Alliance spent more money - $4.5 million was donated by West German parties - and made more promises. The voters believed them. Though the elections didn't give the Alliance an absolute parliamentary majority, it should be able to work with another party and with Kohl on the reunification issue.

But can Kohl and the Alliance deliver on their promises? Change has come so quickly to East Germany that its people expect much, and their peaceful revolution isn't over yet.

Germans face huge problems in combining a state-run economy with a free-market economy. Can they create one currency without bringing on high inflation? What place does a unified Germany have in the European Economic Community? Could a "new" Germany derail that cooperative effort?

Those questions may be answered at the "four plus two" talks among the World War II Allies ("the four"), and East and West Germany ("the two"). Until then, the push for change will continue at full speed. That's what the East Germans want.

by CNB