 Any debate, for example, about the value of the various social institutions (such as the childcare, education, and healthcare systems, which had implemented policy ideas discussed in West Germany for decades, and still today) was simply ruled out by this legal route.East Germany held its first free elections in March 1990.The SED had reorganized as the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and pushed out most of its hardline Communist members in hopes of rehabilitating its image.