Word: brandts
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...lengthy, tension-ridden debate over Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik has faced West Germany's Christian Democratic Union with an unhappy dilemma. For nearly two years they have been saying that they would never vote for the Treaties of Moscow and Warsaw, which are essential to Brandt's hopes of easing tensions with Bonn's Communist neighbors. Now that the treaties have been put forward for ratification, however, the C.D.U. does not want to bear the onus of killing them, since the pacts have become the keys to further progress in East-West détente...
...government proposal that appeared to be a reasonable compromise: a joint interpretation of treaties by the four parliamentary parties that would overcome the objections of the C.D.U. and those of its Bavarian allies, the Christian Social Union. Rather than see his Ostpolitik go down to almost certain defeat, Brandt postponed the vote for a week to enable all sides to work out a joint declaration...
Last week, on the day before the vote, Barzel and a C.S.U. representative met with Brandt and Foreign Minister Walter Scheel, the leader of the Free Democrats, in the Chancellor's home on Venusberg. Also present was Soviet Ambassador Valentin Falin...
...Christian Democrats are in a quandary. They are publicly opposed to the treaties, but do not want the responsibility of rejecting them. They know that they would then be regarded both in East and West as unreliable partners in the search for detente. In their meetings, Barzel and Brandt sought a compromise in a joint declaration that would overcome the reservations of the Christian Democratic Union. Among other things, the declaration would state that the treaties -which recognize the Communist seizure of former German lands after World War II-do not preclude the eventual reunification of Germany and the right...
Heated Quibbling. Unfortunately, neither Brandt nor Barzel could get all their party members to go along with the declaration. There was still heated quibbling over the declaration's wording. There was also great pressure on both men from their own parties to resist compromise. But Brandt, who is eager to have the treaties passed before President Nixon goes to Moscow later this month, decided that he could wait no longer. He scheduled the showdown vote for this week...