Workers' Party of Austria, SDAPÖ). The National Assembly continued its work till 16 February 1919 when elections were held. On 30 October it adopted a provisional constitution and on 12 November it adopted German Austria (Deutschösterreich) as the name of the new state. Since the Emperor, Charles I (Karl I) had stated on 11 November that he no longer had "auf jeden Anteil an den Staatsgeschäften" (any share in the affairs of state), although he always said that he never abdicated, Austria was now a republic. However the provisional constitution stated that it was to be part of the new German Republic proclaimed three days earlier. Article 2 stated: Deutschösterreich ist ein Bestandteil der Deutschen Republik (German Austria is part of the German Republic). Karl Renner was proclaimed Chancellor of Austria, succeeding Heinrich Lammasch and led the first three cabinets (12 November 1918 – 7 July 1920) as a grand coalition of the SDAPÖ, CS, and GDVP. The latter was composed of a large number of splinter groups of the German National and German Liberal movements, and were numerically the largest group in the assembly. On 22 November Austria laid claim to the German speaking territories of the former Habsburg Empire in Czechoslovakia (German Bohemia and parts of Moravia), Poland (Austrian Silesia) and the South Tyrol, annexed by Italy. However Austria was in no position to enforce these claims against either the victorious allies or the new nation states that emerged from the dissolution of the Empire and all the lands in question remained separated from the new Austria. In the words of the then French premier Georges Clemenceau "ce qui reste, c'est l'Autriche" ("Austria is what's left"). An empire of over 50 million had been reduced to a state of 6.5 million. 1919 On 19 February elections were held for what was now called the Constituent National Assembly (Konstituierende Nationalversammlung). Although the Social Democrats won the most seats (41%) they did not have an absolute majority and formed a grand coalition with the second-largest party, the Christian Socialists. On 12 March the National Assembly declared "German Austria" to the part of the "German Republic". Large sections of the population and most representatives of political parties were of the opinion that this "residual" or "rump state" – without Hungary's agriculture sector and Bohemia's industry – would not be economically viable. The journalist Hellmut Andics (1922–1998) expressed this sentiment in his