ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990                   TAG: 9007250087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: EAST BERLIN                                LENGTH: Medium


E. GERMAN RULING COALITION CRISIS BUILDS

A political party quit East Germany's coalition government Tuesday and another group threatened to follow suit in a political crisis over how united German elections should be held.

The Liberal Party, which controls 21 seats in the 400-member Parliament, said it was leaving the seven-party governing coalition of Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere.

Rainer Ortleb, chairman of the Liberal faction in Parliament, said his party's decision was based partly on de Maiziere's "scandalous" alliance with the deposed former Communists on the election question.

The dispute is over whether December elections for a single German Parliament should be held separately in each nation, or whether the two countries should be treated as a single electorate.

Separate elections would give West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl an edge over his main rival, Social Democrat Oskar Lafontaine, in the elections of a unified German nation.

The left-leaning Social Democrats, the second-biggest party in East Germany, also have threatened to resign from de Maiziere's government.

After a meeting of party leaders, the Social Democrats said they will leave the coalition Friday unless de Maiziere's Christian Democrats meet their demands, according to a statement carried by the East German news agency, ADN.

Such a collapse would cause de Maiziere to lose control of the Parliament, where a two-thirds majority is needed to enact unification.

However, all major parties are committed to unification. The strife, if not settled, would more likely slow the process than derail it.

The fight that began last week has been derided by the press and by Germans appalled that the historic quest for a united Germany has been reduced to political infighting.

De Maiziere said the Liberals' decision was purely political and against the interests of East Germans.

"The Liberal faction preferred to tell me of their decision to leave the coalition through a news agency, despite my offer of a bridge that was supposed to lead to a solution of the conflict today," he told ADN.

De Maiziere and several smaller parties, including the former Communists, want the two nations to formally unify immediately after German elections are held on Dec. 2.

Simultaneous elections would be held in each nation. The votes would be counted separately and political representation would be based on how each party did in its own country.

Under de Maiziere's proposal, smaller parties in East Germany - including the former Communists - would stand a better chance of winding up in the united Parliament.



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