German Elections
The local elections held in the British zone on Sunday were only a beginning of the democratic process which is to substitute elected councils for those nominated by the Occupying Power. The elec- tion was, in fact, only for the smallest councils ; the larger towns will poll next month. But the results give at least some indication of political feeling in West Germany. Two points are noticeable. One is the failure of the Communists, who obtained only about i per cent. of votes and seats. The other is the success of independent candidates, nearly 24,000 being returned against 20,60o Christian Democratic Union candidates and 16,0o0 Sociar Democrats. The larger towns may modify this preliminary result ; the Communists are likely to fare better there. But it seems clear that Western Germany on the whole is pursuing a middle- Left course, avoiding extremes, and that the inevitable reaction against the domination of all sides of life by a Partei, which Ger- many has endured since 1933, has set in, with a leaning towards independent candidates. The general tendency is repeated in the French zone, where elections took place simultaneously. Here the Christian Democrats were victorious, but again many seats went to independent candidates. A similar trend had revealed itself in the American-zone elections earlier. Meanwhile, in the Russian zone the Socialist Unity Party (a union of Communists and Social Democrats) has won a decisive victory with 69 per cent. of the seats ; since this party had the full force of Russian propaganda behind it, that is not perhaps surprising.
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