have outlined here.
(Applause)
The first and the only free elections to the East German Volkskammer on 18 March 1990 resulted in a parliament which represented a true cross-section of the population and expressed the vitality and persuasive power of democracy as a form of government. A total of 93.4% of the electorate turned out to vote in the elections. I believe that this is a record which will not be matched in the near future. No one was left untouched by these elections. History will see them as astonishing proof of the fact that we East Germans, after liberating ourselves in the autumn of 1989, succeeded in introducing democracy to our country in the spring of 1990. The people of the GDR acted confidently and responsibly and did justicebefore choosing a new government, because the new era after the end of the Cold War was to be a time of reconciliation, peace and community. This admission of responsibility alone represented the beginning of the work of the only freely elected East German Parliament. Everything that followed was linked to this admission and was the consequence of it, so to speak. This admission remains valid even now that the GDR has come to an end and it represents an obligation to search in everything we do for those things which unite us in Europe.
The East German Parliament gave me the responsibility of putting in place the process which would bring about the unity of the two states. I would like to emphasise that all of us at