Gysi to Contest for PDS Again

Gregor Gysi, former leader of Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor to former East Germany's communist party, said Friday that he will be contesting the upcoming federal elections -- bought forward by a year to coming September -- as the PDS' prime candidate. At the same time Gysi, the party's most popular figure, underlined that he would prefer to take part in the general elections together with a broad coalition of united left-wing forces being cobbled together by Oskar Lafontaine, a former candidate for the chancellorship and party chairman of Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD). Gysi said that he would see to it that such a coalition would cooperate with the Work and Social Justice Group (WASG), a group of SPD dissidents, despite the fact that the PDS could manage the five-percent hurdle needed to get into parliament. "The coalition can fight to become the third-largest political force in Germany," Gysi said.