Democratic Union

WARSAW -- Poland held its first fully free parliamentary vote since World War II yesterday and elected a fragmented legislature, exit polls showed, with the balance of power held by parties that campaigned for easing the country's economic reforms.The vote appeared to reflect a restless dissatisfaction, with seats divided evenly among peasant, religious, nationalist, communist, center-right and center-left parties. Voter turnout was estimated at only 40 percent.The results -- with the nationalists and peasants faring far better than in last year's presidential election, in which 60 percent of the electorate voted -- suggest a revival of Poland's pre-World War II past.

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats and about 300 union retirees gathered in a Senate office building yesterday to condemn proposed Medicare legislation that they say will destroy the program and benefit pharmaceutical and insurance companies more than seniors. "We're going to do everything we can to stop it," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, describing the bill as "a lemon." Proponents say the Medicare bill would offer hefty subsidies for low-income seniors, who would not have to pay premiums or deductibles, and would provide strong prescription drug benefits to the nation's 40 million senior citizens.

BY democratic choice, Croatia is moving into Europe's mainstream and away from its neo-fascist recent past. When Croatia does arrive in the promised land, the isolation of its bitter rival and mirror image, Serbia, will increase until Serbs make similar reforms. Franjo Tudjman led Croatia to independence in 1991, brutally cleansing it of Serbs. Behind flimsy democratic decor, he ruled as a dictator surrounded by profiteers. After President Tudjman died Dec. 10, Croatians mourned. Then they voted Jan. 3 to oust his legacy, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)

KIEL, Germany -- Germany's Christian Democratic Union, punished for the financial scandal that has engulfed the party and its former chancellor, Helmut Kohl, crashed to a heavy defeat yesterday by the governing Social Democrats in an election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. The result amounted to the first concrete confirmation of the Christian Democrats' electoral plight since the financial scandal broke late last year. Three months ago, opinion polls showed Volker Ruehe, Kohl's last defense minister and the party's candidate for premier in Schleswig-Holstein, with a seemingly unassailable 10 percentage-point lead over the Social Democrats.

The most devastating result in Poland's first free parliamentary election in 44 years was the massive indifference of the public. Only 40 percent of eligible Poles bothered to vote. So much for the freedom to choose, the freedom for which so many Poles suffered and died under totalitarian dictatorship.What the 40 percent wanted, or what the other 60 percent scorned, is unclear. Solidarity was weakened, shattered into fragments so that each of its off-shoot parties got less than one-tenth of the vote.

For Germany's two major parties, the obvious lesson to be learned from a right-wing resurgence in two key by-elections last week is that something must be done to stem a flood of immigrants and asylum-seekers. More than 400,000 persons pouring in this year from Eastern Europe and the Third World are overwhelming the nation's ability to maintain an open-door policy. As a result, liberal ideals invoked to counter memories of the Hitler era are, instead, creating conditions on which hatred and bigotry flourish.

MOSCOW -- Democrats from 10 of the Soviet Union's fledgling parties and two dozen other political organizations formed a united front yesterday against the shaken but not yet beaten Communist Party.Democratic Russia, which claims support from 30 percent of the parliament of the Russian Federation and 60 percent of both the Moscow and Leningrad city councils, hopes to achieve a step-by-step takeover of power from the Communist Party, which has governed the Soviet Union for 73 years.To end this long monopoly on power, the new democratic movement, in a series of resolutions adopted at a weekend congress in Moscow, called for creating a multiparty democracy with a market economy based on private ownership of property.

BERLIN -- A pipe-smoking Beau Brummell and a sober farmer are expected to win today's two German state elections, but the size of their victory is being closely watched as a barometer of national politics and the European trend toward right-wing parties.In northern Schleswig-Holstein, well-dressed Bjorn Engholm is poised to retain the state premiership, but if his Social Democrats do not keep their majority in the legislature, then his other position, as the party's national leader and challenger to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, will be seriously damaged.

BERLIN -- Chancellor Helmut Kohl's party suffered a double defeat yesterday, when it lost a state government election and control of the upper house of parliament.The loss was also a personal blow for Mr. Kohl because it came in his home state, Rhineland-Palatinate (or Rhineland-Pfalz), which had been governed by his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for more than 40 years.In the face of rising national problems, the CDU garnered only 39 percent of the vote, a drop of more than 5 percentage points from the last election results in 1986.

KIEL, Germany -- Germany's Christian Democratic Union, punished for the financial scandal that has engulfed the party and its former chancellor, Helmut Kohl, crashed to a heavy defeat yesterday by the governing Social Democrats in an election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. The result amounted to the first concrete confirmation of the Christian Democrats' electoral plight since the financial scandal broke late last year. Three months ago, opinion polls showed Volker Ruehe, Kohl's last defense minister and the party's candidate for premier in Schleswig-Holstein, with a seemingly unassailable 10 percentage-point lead over the Social Democrats.

GERMANY IS FACING the worst political scandal in its postwar history. Leaders of the party which governed the country until just fifteen months ago, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), have admitted to illegally concealing contributions from secret donors. Auditors have been unable to trace about twelve million marks in such donations received since 1989. Initiator of this party financing scandal is none other than one of Germany's political heroes, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. State prosecutors early this month opened an investigation after Mr. Kohl confessed publicly that he broke the law by keeping up to two million marks in clandestine donations.

BY democratic choice, Croatia is moving into Europe's mainstream and away from its neo-fascist recent past. When Croatia does arrive in the promised land, the isolation of its bitter rival and mirror image, Serbia, will increase until Serbs make similar reforms. Franjo Tudjman led Croatia to independence in 1991, brutally cleansing it of Serbs. Behind flimsy democratic decor, he ruled as a dictator surrounded by profiteers. After President Tudjman died Dec. 10, Croatians mourned. Then they voted Jan. 3 to oust his legacy, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)

BONN -- The Liberals survived yet again. The German electorate reasserted its love of stability after a few years of protest votes.And Chancellor Helmut Kohl can probably rule longer than the legendary Otto von Bismarck if he wishes.These are the conclusions to be drawn from the only German state elections this year, all held last Sunday.Mr. Kohl's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) made unusual midterm gains of its own of up to 3 percent, while still donating enough proportional second votes to its junior partner for the Liberal party also to gain and enter all three state parliaments.

For Germany's two major parties, the obvious lesson to be learned from a right-wing resurgence in two key by-elections last week is that something must be done to stem a flood of immigrants and asylum-seekers. More than 400,000 persons pouring in this year from Eastern Europe and the Third World are overwhelming the nation's ability to maintain an open-door policy. As a result, liberal ideals invoked to counter memories of the Hitler era are, instead, creating conditions on which hatred and bigotry flourish.

BERLIN -- A pipe-smoking Beau Brummell and a sober farmer are expected to win today's two German state elections, but the size of their victory is being closely watched as a barometer of national politics and the European trend toward right-wing parties.In northern Schleswig-Holstein, well-dressed Bjorn Engholm is poised to retain the state premiership, but if his Social Democrats do not keep their majority in the legislature, then his other position, as the party's national leader and challenger to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, will be seriously damaged.

BERLIN -- A pipe-smoking Beau Brummell and a sober farmer are expected to win today's two German state elections, but the size of their victory is being closely watched as a barometer of national politics and the European trend toward right-wing parties.In northern Schleswig-Holstein, well-dressed Bjorn Engholm is poised to retain the state premiership, but if his Social Democrats do not keep their majority in the legislature, then his other position, as the party's national leader and challenger to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, will be seriously damaged.

BERLIN -- A pipe-smoking Beau Brummell and a sober farmer are expected to win today's two German state elections, but the size of their victory is being closely watched as a barometer of national politics and the European trend toward right-wing parties.In northern Schleswig-Holstein, well-dressed Bjorn Engholm is poised to retain the state premiership, but if his Social Democrats do not keep their majority in the legislature, then his other position, as the party's national leader and challenger to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, will be seriously damaged.

BONN -- The Liberals survived yet again. The German electorate reasserted its love of stability after a few years of protest votes.And Chancellor Helmut Kohl can probably rule longer than the legendary Otto von Bismarck if he wishes.These are the conclusions to be drawn from the only German state elections this year, all held last Sunday.Mr. Kohl's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) made unusual midterm gains of its own of up to 3 percent, while still donating enough proportional second votes to its junior partner for the Liberal party also to gain and enter all three state parliaments.

The most devastating result in Poland's first free parliamentary election in 44 years was the massive indifference of the public. Only 40 percent of eligible Poles bothered to vote. So much for the freedom to choose, the freedom for which so many Poles suffered and died under totalitarian dictatorship.What the 40 percent wanted, or what the other 60 percent scorned, is unclear. Solidarity was weakened, shattered into fragments so that each of its off-shoot parties got less than one-tenth of the vote.

WARSAW -- Poland held its first fully free parliamentary vote since World War II yesterday and elected a fragmented legislature, exit polls showed, with the balance of power held by parties that campaigned for easing the country's economic reforms.The vote appeared to reflect a restless dissatisfaction, with seats divided evenly among peasant, religious, nationalist, communist, center-right and center-left parties. Voter turnout was estimated at only 40 percent.The results -- with the nationalists and peasants faring far better than in last year's presidential election, in which 60 percent of the electorate voted -- suggest a revival of Poland's pre-World War II past.