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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, June 6, 1980
Page 16
ON THE WORLD SCENE
UNDERDOG STRAUSS REVERTS TO FORM: FROM NOW ON IT'S NO MORE "MR. NICE GUY"
Franz Josef Strauss has at last discarded his kid gloves and carefully
cultivated statesmanlike image. Mr. Strauss has no choice but to revert
to his preferred style of rough-and-tumble politics. The "ineffe ctive
mantel of a prudent statesman" (Times of London description) wasn't work
ing. It's now do-or-die for the burly Bavarian.
The turning point was the key May 11 state election in North Rhine-West
phalia. The populous state has about a third of West Germany's electorate.
Its election was considered to be a dress rehearsal for the October 5
general election.
The results in this bellweather land proved to be a stunning setback for
Mr. Strauss and the conservative CDU-CSU "sister parties." The CDU
plunged from its habitual top position in the state to a bitterly dis
appointing second place, with only 43.2% to 48.4% for Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt's Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Although Strauss downplayed the results ("This election was fought on
local issues") he was angered at SPD sloganeering which portrayed the SPD
as the party of peace and, by implication, the CDU and Strauss as har
bingers of war.
(One poster proclaimed "We Don't Want War Any More" and
featured the pictures of 36 women who had lost sons, husbands, or fathers
in World War II and vowed never to let such a thing happen again.)
Nine days later Mr. Strauss came out swinging at the Christian Democratic
Congress convention in West Berlin. In a two-hour long fighting speech
to the 780 assembled delegates, the chancellor-challenger lashed out at
the left-wingers in the SPD who, he said, were taking Germany on a danger
ous course of neutralization, gradually disengaging Bonn from the Western
Alliance. He accused Chancellor Schmidt of wrangling an invitation to
Moscow (he goes in late June) by watering down a NATO decision to station
improved missiles in Western Europe.
The speech, reported Patricia Clough in the Times of London, May 20, "was
vintage Strauss, a tough, fighting speech, witty, provocative, colourful
and rousing. At the end many--though not all--of the skeptical Christian
Democrats gave him a rousing ovation with shouts of 'Franz Josef, Franz
Josef.
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It seemed as if last week's debacle in the North Rhine-West-
phalian Land elections had finally brought out the fighting spirit which
had seemed to fail him in the 10 months since he became the Opposition's
candidate for Chancellor. By the end he appeared to have won over, or
at least encouraged, the Christian Democrats." (Prior to the speech some
disgruntled CDU members had even talked of dumping Strauss. But they also
realized it is too late in the campaign to do this.)
Mr. Strauss, it is apparent, will be hammering hard at the powerful left
wing of the SPD and its barely concealed appeasemertt preferences toward
Moscow. He will hit not only the SPD's vociferous youth organization, but
also leaders such as Herbert Wehner (a former East German Communist), Egon
Bahr, and ex-Chancellor Willy Brandt. Brandt is certainly fair game,
having recently equated Soviet action in Afghanistan with U.S. policy in
the Caribbean.