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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, OCTOBER 15, 1982
PAGE 5
minority Free Democratic Party. The two had opposite views on how to rescue
the nation from its growing economic malaise (stagnant growth, 7.4%
unemployment and the bankruptcy of some famous old companies).
The Socialists, in typical fashion, wanted to move the country further in
the direction of governmental bailout spending, higher taxes,
etc. ,
much in
the manner of the Democratic Party in America. The Free Democrats said it
was time to stimulate the economy instead through cuts in taxes and welfare
spending, more along the line of "Reaganomics."
When the government's
Economics Minister, a Free Democrat, went public on his own with a 36-page
document calling for such a program, the move infuriated the Chancellor.
The stage was then set for a showdown between Schmidt and his four FDP
cabinet ministers. Under threat of being fired, they quit, bringing down
the government.
At the same time, FDP Chairman and Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich
Genscher, announced that the FDP would "jump the aisle" and offer its seats
to the two conservative parties, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and
its Bavarian wing, the Christian Social Union (CSU). After hard negotia
tions, the CDU/CSU accepted, ensuring the successful outcome of the Oct
ober 1 "constructive vote of no confidence."
Free Democrats On Way Out
The legal but unorthodox alternative method of changing government has not
proved popular with the voting public in West Germany, which felt it was
simply ignored in the process. Chancellor Kohl has promised new elections
for March, 1983, but some experts believe they may be postponed until
-later.
Thus the government as it stands now has a certain air of
illegitimacy about it.
The rree Democrats have been castigated for their infidelity (though, to be
fair, the FDP was allied years before with the CDU/CSU). In two subsequent
state elections, in Hesse and in Bavaria, FDP candidates have been drubbed,
the party failing to clear the five percent threshhold for legislative
representation.
Herr Kohl, loser in a frustratingly close election to Schmidt in 1976, has
also been criticized as being too quick to grab for the reigns of power, via
the secondary no-confidence vote route. Herr Schmidt had called for new
elections as the proper way out of the governmental crisis.
So did
Bavaria's Franz Josef Strauss, who was convinced that the CDU/CSU would win
a clear majority of
seats
{at least 249) in any new government.
Herr
Strauss knows that the slumping FDP is nearing oblivion, and may not make it
into any subsequent Bundestag. Why depend upon this "lame duck" minority
party now, he asks, and give them four key cabinet positions?
Herr Strauss, in fact, was extremely critical of the FDP's switch. In the
first place, he doesn't want these middle-of-the-road old-style liberals on
the conservative "team" since they will pull the CDU/CSU to the left. In
his typical outspokenness, Strauss described the impact of having to share
rule with the FDP in this manner: "He who goes to bed with a syphilitic
must not be surprised when he infects himself."