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| Europe |
| 7 German New Left MPs collaborated with Stasi! |
| 2005-09-24 |
| Germany's new Left party, which could play a crucial role in deciding the next chancellor, faced acute embarrassment yesterday amid claims that at least seven of its MPs had collaborated with the Stasi, the East German secret police. The head of Germany's state-held Stasi archive, Marianne Birthler, said she had documents to prove the MPs had worked as "inoffizielle mitarbeiter" (unofficial collaborators). The public had a right to know which MPs had collaborated, she said, adding: "It's a question of trust." The revelation came as the Left party held its first meeting as a parliamentary group after Sunday's inconclusive general election. It is made up of members from the Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor to East Germany's Communist party, and a new west German leftwing alliance, the Workers and Social Justice party. It won 8.7% of the vote, coming second in eastern Germany. With neither Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats nor Angela Merkel's conservatives able to form a government on their own, the Left party's MPs could play a crucial role in a secret ballot for chancellor. Some have already hinted they might back Mr Schröder. Asked whether it was true seven MPs had worked with the Stasi, spokesman Hendrik Thalheim told the Guardian: "We are not interested in such one-sided reports. We are meeting for the first time today. People are interested in other things." Only 23 of the party's 54 new MPs grew up in East Germany. Gregor Gysi, its charismatic joint leader, has denied previous claims that he worked informally for the Stasi between 1978 and 1989. Yesterday Mrs Birthler said all Germany's newly elected MPs should allow their Stasi files to be examined. She said there could be several other cases. Under Germany's current law the archives can only be made public with the permission of the person involved. By the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 the Stasi had 91,000 official employees as well as 300,000 unofficial collaborators. Meanwhile, the Left party has so far ruled itself out of coalition talks. Yesterday Mrs Merkel held exploratory talks with the Green party aimed at building a coalition with it and the liberal Free Democrats. Afterwards the Greens said they saw no basis for cooperation. This appears to make a "grand coalition" between the Social Democrats and the conservatives more likely, although both Mrs Merkel and Mr Schröder have said they would have to be chancellor. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 Wasn't reunification wonderful ;) |
| Posted by: Chineck Angitch6709 2005-09-24 13:08 |
| #2 But everybody collaborated with the Stasi in the bad old days. That's assumed. It only matters if one was an official employee. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-09-24 04:37 |
| #1 Ha! How long has this little nugget been known, and by whom? |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-09-24 01:00 |