国际英语新闻:Germany's "real reunification" still long way to go: GDR's last PM

BERLIN, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- There are yawning gaps between Germany's east and west and therefore "real unification" remains ongoing, Hans Modrow, the last prime minister of German Democratic Republic (GDR), has said.

The development in the last three decades failed the expectations of people when the Berlin Wall fell, Modrow told Xinhua in a recent interview, as Germany marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"The differences between east and west, especially economically, are still large," Modrow said, adding that although Germany's economy has been growing over the past three decades, loans issuance and quality pensions for those in eastern states were much lower compared to the western states.

"From an economic point of view, there have been two ways of life in the east and the west. Many in the east feel that they're somehow second-class citizens." Modrow said.

He called on politicians to pay more attention to the differences in living standards between east and west.

"Reunification is not a completed status, but an ongoing process," Modrow said.

After German reunification, Modrow served as a member of the German lower parliament, the Bundestag, from 1990 to 1994, and of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004.

Modrow works now as the president of the Council of Elders of Germany's Left Party.

Official statistics also showed that median income in the six eastern federal states historically belonging to the GDR is less than 80 percent of that in western states.