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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 11, 1982
PAGE 10
said, "my heart is with you. I would be at the head of your parade, if I
believed marching alone would bring about a more secure world."
(Significantly, a pro-Arnerican rally was held in two West German cities
last Sunday: Bonn and Munich. Police estimated that about 50,000 mostly
middle-aged Germans showed up in Bonn. Some held banners proclaiming "Say
Something Good About America" and "We Believe the West." In Munich, Franz
Josef Strauss addressed a rally of about 30,000.)
The general feeling this morning is that President Reagan's obviously sin
cere and quite stirring address yesterday ("We are with you, Germany. You
are not alone.") was well-received by all levels of West German society,
except for the amorphous peace movement which, incidentally, is so divided
that it contains no fewer than 1,830 groups.
Nevertheless, to be pro
American doesn't necessarily mean being pro-Reagan.
The President is
widely perceived as being a bit too "hawkish." A full-page ad appearing in
37 newspapers this week entitled "Friendship With the American People" made
no reference to Mr. Reagan personally.
Even in the Bundestag, the President did not receive 100% polite and undi
vided attention. He was interrupted twice by two extreme leftist independ
ent politicians (so radical they couldn't abide even the left wing of the
Social Democratic Party) •
One shouted "El Salvador" after Mr. Reagan
referred to Soviet military activities in Afghanistan.
(The President's
response: "Did I hear an echo in here?") The Social Democratic delegates
were seated right below me as I peered down from my perch in the Bundestag
press gallery. Most of these representatives applauded faintly (the speech
was otherwise interrupted 21 times); although a handful of them never did.
The most radical delegates weren't even wearing ties, showing no respect
for their honored guest whatsoever.
With regard to Chancellor Schmidt's badly-divided Social Democratic Party
(SPD), it is in its most vulnerable state since the last federal elections
in October, 1980. Last Sunday the SPD was shocked by being defeated in the
Hamburg state elections.
(Hamburg and Bremen are both city-states.)
Hamburg is Mr. Schmidt's home town and for his party to be outpolled by the
conservative CDU there for the first time since World War II was a crushing
personal blow to him. In addition, the free Democrats (FDP), a small party
which is the SPD coalition partner in Bonn, failed to clear the five percent
mark for representation in the Hamburg legislature.
Authorities of the FDP believe that lack of public support for the SPD is
hurting them--in fact, threatening their party with extinction. Executives
of the FDP in Hessia, where the lone surviving state-level SPD/FDP coali
tion exists, have already recommended a switch to partnership with the CDU
for their upcoming election. This is a decision, said one source, which
"will inevitably be seen as an admission that their 13-year-old partnership
with the SPD (in Bonn) is doomed."
The political arm of the "greens" pulled 7.7% of the vote in Hamburg. Thus
this broadly based conservationist, anti-nuclear power, pacifist coalition
is threatening to displace the FDP nationwide as the third party. This
makes governing in Germany difficult since the "greens" are not really
interested in exercising political office as a conventional party. They
profess to be only a negative protest "alternative" voting bloc. A perfect
example of creeping political paralysis is Hamburg.
The CDU narrowly