Word: bundestag
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Despite his cool attitude, Kohl, 52, had every reason to be ebullient. In an election billed as a watershed in West German history, his Christian Democratic/Christian Social Union alliance had won 48.8% of the popular vote, guaranteeing Kohl 244 seats in the country's 520-member Bundestag. Meanwhile, the Chancellor's coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party, led by Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, 55, survived a potentially fatal drop in popular esteem to win 6.9% of the vote and 34 Bundestag seats, thereby providing Kohl with a sturdy governing majority. The opposition Social Democratic Party...
...State Department officials can also see the potential pressures on Kohl that may result from the Bundestag's new seating arrangement. They recognize that a Kohl victory is not necessarily a blanket endorsement for U.S. missiles in West Germany. Says a senior State Department analyst: "The question is not whether we can deploy. We can deploy, there is no doubt about it now. But the election does not guarantee that we can do so in an orderly way." In other words, the U.S. must still demonstrate flexibility in the Geneva talks and put any onus for failure...
...Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union, gaining an estimated 49.3% of the popular vote. Kohl's Social Democratic rival, Hans-Jochen Vogel, 57, ran second with 38.2%. The environmentalist, antinuclear Green Party polled around 5%, possibly gaining a disruptive foothold in the Bundestag. The small Free Democratic Party, Kohl's old coalition partner, defied predictions of its demise and bounced back with...
Although the result may have left the Christian Democrats just short of an absolute majority in the Bundestag, Kohl's return to power as Chancellor was assured by the survival of the Free Democrats, who once again resumed their role as the balance of power in West German politics. Kohl's risky gamble in holding national elections six months after the collapse of the coalition, led by Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt, had paid off. Despite the existence of a widespread and vocal peace and protest movement, spearheaded by the Greens, Kohl had always maintained that there...
...over how to reverse the nation's declining economic fortunes. Branded as "traitors," by the SPD, the Free Democrats began a downward slide in public esteem, and for a while it seemed that they might not win the 5% of the vote necessary to hold seats in the Bundestag. If neither Kohl nor Vogel had won an absolute majority last Sunday, West Germans might have then been faced with a parliament in which the balance of power was held by the antinuclear, pacifist Greens. The latter would not support Kohl, and they had earlier declared that they would back...