BONN -- Germany's reformed communist Party of Democratic Socialism, fresh from celebrating its triumph in last week's federal election, faces allegations that some of its recently elected members were informers for the infamous East German security police, the Stasi.


The allegations have centered on the party's charismatic leader, Gregor Gysi, after two influential national magazines reported that newly discovered documents have revealed that, as a lawyer in East Germany, Gysi informed on his dissident clients and received gifts from the secret police.


Political opponents, including former Gysi client and leftist Greens Party legislator Gerd Poppe, called on the PDS leader to quit his seat in Parliament or clear up the charges.


The weekly magazine Der Speigel reported that the office in charge of Stasi files informed the PDS last week that it had discovered receipts for 100-Mark (about $70) birthday and Christmas gifts that a Stasi officer had bought for Gysi, and that the receipts "harden the suspicion" that Gysi was an informant.


The receipts were discovered in a file on Gysi called "Sputnik." Gysi argues that the file reporting on him proves he was not a collaborator, and that the Stasi often maintained "friendly" contact with people it was watching.


Gysi has long maintained his innocence when it comes to the Stasi, and a parliamentary committee found no proof of any secret police activities on his part when they investigated eastern deputies after the 1990 election.