A decree of 10 June 1945 allowed for the formation of antifascist democratic political parties and called for elections in October 1946. A coalition of four parties was formed in July, consisting of the Communist (KPD), Social Democratic (SPD), Liberal Democratic and (eastern) Christian Democratic (CDU) parties. This coalition was known as the Democratic Bloc, which would be succeeded by the National Front in 1950. In April 1946 the KPD and SPD merged under Soviet pressure into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany ("Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands" – SED). In the October 1946 elections, the SED won in the East German states, but lost in Greater Berlin to the local SPD, which had not merged with the KPD there.