ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the new party system, which quickly took on the coloration of the West German system, from October 1990 to the end of 1993. The accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic on October 3, 1990, marked a milestone in German history and led to the transformation of the party system. The eastern and western parties, with the exception of the Greens and the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), had already merged before unification. The western Greens also tried to convince voters, and even the majority of their own members who favored unification, that the party's opposition to a speedy unification was motivated by a genuine concern for the eastern Germans' inability to shape their own destiny. The PDS had its own ticket in eastern Germany but in western Germany allied itself with communist and other leftist groups and individuals under the rubric "Left List." The PDS faced its own set of handicaps.
