The Influence of the New Federal States on the German Party System After Unification

The collapse of the communist regime in German Democratic republic caused factual loss of legitimacy of the republic as a whole. The events of 1989 and 1990 have brought the end of separation of both German states. The both parts of Germany were unified on October 3rd, 1990, but internal unity of the new state is 15 years later still far from reality. Two undemocratic regimes, one following another, interrupted traditional affiliations between voters and political parties hardly. New period of the German party system has started. Although the influence of the West German parties on constitution of the democratic East German party system was dominant, there has established unique party system with own specifics. The most measurable diversity of the East German party system is the presence of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). This communist successor party has been successful in fast every elections since German Unification, last time she won over the quarter of East German votes. Thanks to the association with the new West German left party, called Electoral Alternative Work and Social Justice (WASG), the Left party/PDS has won 54 seats in the 16th Bundestag. Few months afterwards there was built a Great Coalition of Christian democrats (CDU/CSU) and social democrats (SPD), which in its consequence..