World Notes WEST GERMANY

Fringe politics, of either the left or the right, has rarely counted for much in staid and cautious postwar West Germany. But last week, to the shock of the country's political establishment, that dictum was punctured in both directions. In two major cities, West Berlin and Frankfurt, left-wing alliances of Social Democrats and environmental-activist Greens became majority factions. Both cities have also seen a resurgence of ultra-right parties: anti-immigrant Republicans in West Berlin and National Democrats in Frankfurt. The National Democrats, once a refuge of unreconstructed Nazis, gained 6.6% of the vote and representation in the legislative council of the country's financial capital.

Those gains came at the expense of the center-right coalition of the Christian Democratic Union and the Free Democratic Party, which has held national power for the past six years. The Christian Democrats now control the mayor's office in only one of West Germany's major cities, Stuttgart. And in both West Berlin and Frankfurt, the Free Democrats failed to receive the 5% of the vote needed to gain representation in the local councils, a disturbing omen for a small swing party that seldom polls more than 10% anywhere.

Some analysts detected a trend that could influence next year's regional and national elections. Said Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, head of the Allensbach public opinion institute: "This weakening of the big center parties and the strengthening of the fringes is not a short-term phenomenon. This trend will continue."