In a significant regional referendum, German voters decisively rejected a proposed merger between the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, demonstrating the complexity of post-reunification territorial reorganization in Germany.
Voters in the east German state of Brandenburg overwhelmingly rejected a merger with the city state of Berlin in a referendum yesterday which underlined how deep the mental divide between east and west Germans remains.
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A projection for national ZDF television indicated that in Brandenburg, one of the five new federal states created in ex-Communist east Germany after unification with the west in 1990, 60 per cent of voters opposed the merger which required approval in both states to go ahead.
In the capital Berlin, 63 per cent favoured union with their surrounding, mostly agricultural, hinterland. But even there, the figures from the Electoral Research Group showed a majority against the plan in the former communist east Berlin.
Brandenburg's Social Democrat Prime Minister, Mr Manfred Stolpe, who failed to win over voters despite huge personal popularity, said many east Germans were simply tired of political upheaval, six years after unification.