Basic HTML Version
by
Gene H. Hogberg
West Germany is the hinge of the Western a lliance. Lit t le wonder that powerful
forces on all sides a re deeply involved in th is pivota! nation's future.
I
n March, voters in West
Germany went to the polls
in an election billed as t he
most important one in that
nation's 34-year history.
lncumbent Chancellor Hcl–
mut Kohl emerged with a
resou nding victory. H is center–
right coalition of Christian
Democrats, Bavarian Christian
Socialists and Free Democrats
was returned to power with a
convincing 55.6 percen t of the
vote, a figure considered high
in the Federal Republi c's tradi–
tional ly clase national elec–
tions.
T he United States government
signaled its immediate approval of
the electoral outcome. France
breathed a sigh of relief. The
Soviet Union, on the other hand,
which had hoped for a victory by
the Social Democratic candidate,
Hans-Jochen Yogel, expressed its
dismay at the outcome.
An Early Election
The unusual off-season election was
essentially a contest to eithcr con–
firm or reject the change of govern–
ment that had occurred five months
earlier, in October 1982.
At that time, Chancellor Kohl,
through a seldom-used parliamen-
2
tary procedure, forced the ouster of
the center-left govcrnment of
former Chancellor H elmut
Schmidt.
Upon his accession to power,
Mr. Kohl promised the German
people that they would have an
opportunity to express their demo–
cratic will on the changeover as
soon as possible.
In the election campaign, Mr.
Kohl enjoyed the advantage of the
incumbent. Moreover, he had been
a known personality on the national
scene for nearly a decade. He nar–
rowly lost the 1976 election.
Mr. Kohl was able to weather
sorne bad economic news that
broke on the very eve of the elec–
tion-the report that a record num–
ber of West Germans- more than
2.5 million- were out of work in
the Federal Republic's worst reces–
sion to date.
The chancellor convinced the
voters that, being only five months
in office, he was not to blame. He
pointed to 13 years of what he
called "mismanagemcnt" by pre–
vious Social Democratic-dominated
governments.
The West German business com–
munity evidently believed the chan–
cellor's campaign arguments. Im–
mediately after the election, share
values jumped on the Frankfurt
stock exchange.
The " Missile" Election
As important as domest ic consider–
ations were, they were overshad–
owed- at least in the perception of
non-Germans-by another key is–
sue: nuclear weapons.
1n his first post-election news
confercnce, Chancellor Kohl an–
nounced that West Germany would
proceed as planned with its part of
the December 1979 NATO deci–
sion to deploy 572 new American–
made intermediate-range nuclear
missiles in Western Eu rope. T his
plan is scheduled to go into effect
unless an American-Soviet agree–
ment is reached by the end of 1983
to forestall their installation.
The new missiles are intended to
counterbalance the approximately
250 powerful triple-warheaded SS-
20 missiles targeted on Western
Europe that the Soviet Union has
been installing at the rate of one a
week for the past four years.
West Germany is scheduled to
begin receivi ng, by year's end, the
lion's share of the new U.S.-madc
weapons. AJI 108 of the advanced
Pershing 11 missiles, plus 96 of the
464 ultrasophisticated ground–
launched cruise missiles (G LCMs),
are intended for sites in West Ger–
many, the count ry possessing the
greatest number of U.S. bases.
T he remaining 368 cruise mis-
The PLAIN TRUTH