Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 17, 1994 TAG: 9410170093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BONN, GERMANY LENGTH: Medium
The results, including a strong showing by former East German communists, marked a dramatic shift for the 80 million-strong nation at the center of Europe. Days, perhaps weeks of negotiations probably will be required to determine how the results play out.
With 94 percent of the votes counted, Kohl's coalition received about 49 percent, good for 330 seats in the 656-seat Parliament, a two-seat majority that Kohl, 64, called ``workable.''
The coalition ``will be confirmed - barely - but remains a coalition of losers,'' said Rudolf Scharping, leader of the Social Democrats, the main opposition. ``If we don't take over now, we'll be in power by 1998, if not sooner.''
Kohl's Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, won 284 seats in Parliament, and will be able to count on their junior partner, the Free Democrats, with 46 seats.
The Social Democrats got about 37 percent of the vote, or 249 seats.
The Social Democrats' strong showing in three state elections will likely tighten their hold on the Bundesrat, or upper house of Parliament, which has a strong voice in making laws.
``It's a very weak government,'' said Gerald Livingston, an election observer who heads the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in Washington.
The Social Democrats probably are ``going to have a blocking majority'' in the upper house, Livingston said, ``and they're going to use it to stop the government from governing.''
by CNB