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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 11, 1983
PAGE 8
Herr Kohl was able to defuse this charge as well. He assured the voters
that while he was for President Reagan's "zero-option" plan, he was not in
flexible on this issue. He even told the voters on election eve he had
information that the U.S. would soon introduce a "common sense" proposal on
the subject.
In the end, the innate conservatism of the average West German played to Mr.
Kohl
I
s immediate advantage. Still, there are many signs that the public
opinion battle in Germany over East-West relations has only just begun.
Surprised by the size of the defeat of "their candidate" Mr. Vogel, the
Soviet Union warned the new government in Bonn that any deployment of new
American missiles on German territory would "damage the entire complex of
relations"--including formidable trade ties--between Bonn and Moscow.
The biggest challenge for Mr. Kohl, however, could be from within the
federal parliament in Bonn. For the first time in their brief existence,
the anti-establishment, youth-oriented Green Party has secured federal
representation. They won 27 seats. The Greens have promised to fight the
missiles "in parliament and in the streets."
"This is going to be a very hot year," said Joachim Wernicke, scientific
adviser of the Greens, shortly after the election. "There will be block
ades of deployment sites. There will be blocking of U.S. military trans
ports. There will be parliamentary and non-parliamentary action to stop
the deployment."
Three West German peace movements proclaimed support of the Green cause.
They promised hunger strikes and tax strikes in what one activist termed
"a
peaceful civil war" to blockade the missiles deployment. Thus there could
be real fireworks in the Bundestag the remainder of this year, especially
if Bavaria's outspoken Franz-Josef Strauss joins the Kohl cabinet, as ex
pected. or. Strauss has referred to the Greens as being little but Moscow's
catspaw inside West Germany, a charge the Greens vehemently reject. The
Green Party, Or. Strauss says, is like a tomato: It starts out green--but
ends up red.
As we go to press, Herr Strauss is pushing hard for an important cabinet
post. He would like to have the number two post, that of Foreign Minister,
now occupied by Hans-Dietrich Genscher, party chairman of the Free Demo
crats. Strauss does have an argument. His CSU party did extremely well in
Bavaria, gaining 60% of the vote, entitling the CSU to 53 seats alongside
their bigger CDU sister party in Bonn. The Free Democrats (also known as
the Liberals) meanwhile slumped to 37 seats from 53 in 1980. Herr Kohl
would prefer to keep the controversial Strauss "back in his box" in
Bavaria, to rephrase a recent comment concerning Libya's Muammar Kadafi,
but the pressure is great to include Strauss in the cabinet. We should know
more about this in a few days.
The Center Holds
The election proved to be a disaster for the SPD's Vogel who deemphasized
heart-and-core economic matters and gambled instead on the peace (anti
weapon) issue in an attempt to win back defectors to the Greens. He lost on
both counts.
The voters rejected the SPD economic policy of the past
decade--and the Greens got in anyway. "From Bonn Comes a Reaffirmation of
the Center" is the headline of the following article in the March 10, 1983