Merkel: 31 yrs later, German unification incomplete

Berlin, October 3

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Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that Germans must keep working for democracy, as the country celebrated the 31st anniversary of the reunification of East and West.

In what is expected to be one of her last major speeches, the outgoing Chancellor said that “mentally and structurally, unification hasn’t been completed yet”. Three decades on, there remains a political and economic divide between Germany’s formerly communist east and the west. The difference was illustrated in last month’s national election, where the far-right Alternative for Germany party captured 16 constituencies in the east even as its overall share of the vote dropped across the country. — AP