West Germany Paying for SPDs Sins

THE loss of majority by the Social Democrats (SPD) in the elections held in the city state of Hamburg which they ruled con-tinuously for 16 years has cast a pall of gloom among the left and progressive circles in the Federal Republic of Germany, parti-cularly in view of its implications for the impending general elections for the federal parliament. In the elections held on November 9, SPD's votes declined from 51.3 per cent in the previous elections held in 1982 to 41.8 per cent and their seats from 64 to 53 in a house of 120, while the conservative CDU and its ally, the Free Democrats, the so-called