Central Europe
Central Europe Federal Republic of Germany Domestic Affairs s JULY 1, 1979 Karl Carstens of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) took office as the new president of the Federal Republic. He had been elected by the federal parliament to succeed Walter Scheel. Also in July CDU and the Christian Social Union (CSU), the opposition parties in the federal lower house, chose Franz Josef Strauss as their candidate for chancellor in the 1980 elections. In the state parliament elections in Berlin and Rhineland-Palatinate on March 18, the governing parties retained their majorities; the results in Berlin were CDU, 44 per cent; Social Democratic party (SDP), 43 per cent; and the Free Democratic party (FDP), 8 per cent; the results in Rhineland-Palatinate were CDU, 50 per cent; SPD, 42 per cent; FDP, 6 per cent; and the National Democratic party (NPD), .7 per cent. In the parliamentary election in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, on April 29, CDU maintained its absolute majority against SPD and FDP; the results were CDU, 48 per cent; SPD, 42 per cent; FDP, 6 per cent; and NPD, .2 per cent. In the election for the city-state parliament in Bremen, on October 7, SPD retained its absolute majority, while CDU and FDP lost a number of seats. The election for the first European parliament, in June, produced the following outcome in the Federal Republic: SPD, 40 per cent; CDU, 39 per cent; CSU, 10 per cent; FDP, 6 per cent; and the German Communist party (DK.P), .4 per cent. The voter turnout was 66 per cent.
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