20 years of German unity- in perspective
The government’s annual report on the state of German unity finds that the country is on the right track. This is a fatal error, according to the leader of DIE LINKE, Gesine Lötzsch.
The goverment has invoked German unification and the day was celebrated with an enormous amount of money, but in the heads and lives of millions of people, it is not a success, as the governments of the past 20 years have done a lot to sow the seeds of discord between the East and West. The CDU/CSU, FDP, SDP and the Greens have turned East Germany into a benefits country.
People in East Germany are much less able to find good work, and wages and pensions are still not equal. Young people here have too few apprenticeship places and opportunities for advancement.Therefore, more than half the soldiers deployed in Afghanistan come from the East.
Every government in the past 20 years has meddled with East Germany, without success. When you look at the results in comparison to the funds used, they are utterly disgraceful.
With the loss of competition within the system, the social market is being dismantled. The worse the social situation in the East gets worse for many people, the more senseless it makes the attacks on the GDR, which went down 20 years ago.
DIE LINKE has learnt a lot from the mistakes of the GDR, and at the same time, seen in the last 20 years that the capitalism of today is not capable of solving the problems of the East and West, much less the world.
DIE LINKE is fighting for a society which is not driven by fear or profits, which does not humiliate and exclude humanity, but rather one which is based on fairness and solidarity.