NID: EAST GERMANY: COMMUNIST PARTY LOSES ITS LEGAL MONOPOLY

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826802
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: December 2, 1989

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826802
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EAST GERMANY: Communist Party Loses Its Legal Monopoly
East Germany's Communist party lost its legal monopoly of power
yesterday, and roundtable talks next week will set the terms for free
elections.
In its first televised session. the East German legislature yesterday
eliminated the constitutional guarantee of the party's leading role.
One legislator complained that thc new government still is moving
too slowly on economic reform and called for restoring the traditional
territorial units�the Laender�to break the power of the state
apparatus.
Yesterday, the Karl Marx Stadt branch of the New Forum opposition
group called for a general strike on the eve of the roundtable talks.
which are to discuss free elections and other political reforms. The
call was opposed by Baerbel Bailey. a national leader of the group.
Pressure to put former party leaders on trial is increasing rapidly. On
Thursday, New Forum and a local government official filed charges
against former party boss Erich Honecker and his associates for illegal
use of public assets. Honecker% successor, Egon Krenz. has
intensified public criticism of his former superiors while protesting
his own innocence of corruption. A special Central Committee
session will convene tomorrow to hear a report on leadership
corruption and to consider remedies.
Comment: The sudden end to the party's de jure monopoly of power
makes the date and the procedures for democratic elections the key
issue at the roundtable talks. In the longer run it sets the stage for a
more genuine coalition government in which the Communists and
perhaps even popular Premier Modrow may end up playing minor
roles. The Czechoslovak example may be behind the call for a general
strike, which, if heeded, will put great pressure on the party and on
the government to agree to radical electoral reforms.
Legal proceedings against former party leaders max' force a showdown
between party reformers and hardliners as early as tomorrow's
Central Committee session over how far to go with a purge. Krenz
will surely face pressure from all factions to step down because he is
tainted with suspicion and is widely disliked by the public. A clean
sweep of the old guard seems increasingly likely at the mid-December
congress.
Tup-Soczet__
TCS 2979/89
2 December 1989
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Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826802