Word: bundestag
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...Cabinet last week adopted measures to strengthen Bonn's hand against the terrorists. The Cabinet action had no direct connection with the Schleyer kidnaping, since it had been prompted by measures tabled five months ago by the Christian Democratic opposition. The two sets of proposals, which the Bundestag will consider this month, agreed on a number of key points: 1) the trial of terrorists would be speeded and prison terms toughened; 2) radical attorneys would be curbed from abusing the privileges of the lawyer-client relationship (see box); 3) coordination of federal, state and local police should be improved...
Some close aides of the Chancellor believe he is so resigned to eventual defeat that he may ask for a vote of confidence in the Bundestag in early fall. According to this scenario, Schmidt would lose and call for a new national election, which the opposition Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union alliance would almost certainly win. The reasoning behind this strategy: the new government would bog down in the economic and social difficulties facing the country, and thereby prepare the way for a revamped and refreshed S.P.D. to win a clear majority in the 1981 election, without the need...
...planned increases in the government's share of medical care and student assistance, is reneging on its promise to pursue a vigorous social reforms policy. In economic policy, Schmidt has been cautiously conservative, fearing that too much stimulation would trigger a high inflationary cycle. Says one disaffected S.P.D. Bundestag member: "Hell, Schmidt could just as well be Chancellor of the C.D.U...
...social policy and further tax cuts. To exploit these differences, the opposition has been courting the F.D.P., in hopes of breaking up the coalition and thereby forming a new Christian Democratic government with F.D.P. support. So far the F.D.P. has resisted, but as one Schmidt loyalist in the Bundestag puts it, "Those opportunists are just waiting to jump to the other side...
...quite nothing. Burly Christian Democratic Leader Helmut Kohl, who opposed Schmidt in last October's election, has proved to be an ineffectual performer in the Bundestag, unsure of his tactics, unable to exploit the government's mistakes and weaknesses. Kohl must also cope with the open contempt and sideline sniping of right-leaning Franz Josef Strauss, chief of the Bavarian-based Christian Social Union. Strauss believes that Kohl is too weak and not conservative enough. A number of Christian Democrats agree with the first of these charges, but they are unlikely to change leaders so soon after last...