Refugees and Politics
Schleswig-Holstein, the most northerly of the West German Lander, is also one of the smallest. The elections that took place there last Sunday should therefore not give rise to any sweeping deductions. They derive considerable importance, none the less, from one development which, if repeated elsewhere, may have serious consequences. In this Land the refugees have organised themselves into a political party, and at their first attempt secured fifteen seats in a House of sixty-nine. That is a considerable success, and it coincides with a reduction in the Social Democratic seats from forty-three to nineteen. No party now commands a majority, or anything like it, and the question is on what basis a coalition government shall be formed. The Social Democrats and the refugees would only number thirty-four—just under half the House-, between them, and the refugees would clearly exact high terms for their co-operation. That, of course, is the danger. A pressure- group, nondescript in political composition but united in a desire (neither unintelligible nor entirely unreasonable) to further its own interests, could make havoc of existing political alignments. If the same development recurs at the 'next elections to be held, those in Lower Saxony, the prospect of a united refugee political movement throughout Western Germany will have to be reckoned with. That should stimulate the Federal Government to press ahead with measures for employment and settlement, for it is the un- employed and unsettled element that may cause trouble. In Schleswig-Holstein the bloc of Christian Democratic Union, Free Democrats (industrialists) and German Party has increased from twenty-one to thirty-one seats. A small addition would give it half the House ; but it is not clear where such an accession to the Right is to come from, nor how far government by the Right is desirable.
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