A political feud has dramatically accelerated the process of forging a single German nation and could force a final vote on the historic merger as early as this week.
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's surprising call to move up united German elections from Dec. 2 to Oct. 14 has prompted his chief rivals, the Social Democrats, to seek unity even sooner.Horst Ehmke, deputy chairman of the West German Social Democrats, suggested in a newspaper article Monday that the East German Social Democrats may propose instant unity in Parliament this week.
Asked by the newspaper Bild whether the East German Social Democrats might make such a move during its Wednesday session, Ehmke reportedly replied: "I don't know. I don't exclude it."
The Social Democratic parties of the two German states are closely allied. They are the leading opposition in West Germany and part of Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere's broad governing coalition in East Germany.
Both the conservative Christian Democrats of Kohl and de Maiziere and the left-leaning Social Democratic parties are seeking to use the timing and sequence of German unity to boost their political fortunes.
The Social Democrats are pushing to separate the process of unification and elections. Kohl wants to keep them tied together.
It is up to East Germany to enact unification. That will be done when its Parliament approves a clause in the West German constitution that will allow it to accede to its bigger neighbor.
Kohl's Christian Democrats want all-German elections quickly to avoid a potential loss of voter support when the East German economy collapses.
For the same reason, the Social Democrats have been fighting to keep the elections from being moved up to Oct. 14.
But the Social Democrats have said in recent days that, because of East Germany's economic problems, they would now accept actual unification much sooner. That would allow them to be perceived as embracing a process they have tried to slow while still benefiting politically from elections in December.
Kohl would be forced to spend more West German money on East Germany right away, then perhaps pay for it at the polls in December.
In an interview on West German television on Sunday, Kohl sidestepped questions about whether taxes would have to be raised to pay for East Germany's swift and costly conversion to a free market after four decades of socialism.