Word: bundestag
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
With these words, Steiner, a former Deputy in the West German Bundestag, admitted that in April 1972 he sold his vote to keep Chancellor Willy Brandt in power. Writing in last week's issue of the illustrated weekly Quick, Steiner (who is currently in hiding, probably outside Germany), confessed that he received 50,000 marks (about $20,000) from a member of Brandt's Social Democratic Party to abstain in a secret vote of confidence on the Brandt coalition government. By not voting against Brandt, Steiner betrayed his own party, the opposition Christian Democratic Union (C.D.U.), which expected...
...name first appeared, he admitted that he abstained from voting against Brandt, but did so, he insisted, for ideological reasons, not for money. But then, a la Watergate, bits and pieces of evidence surfaced. The national daily Die Welt reported that shortly after last year's crucial Bundestag vote, Steiner bought himself two Mercedes and a Mini-Cooper...
Barzel's resignation came after the majority of C.D.U.-C.S.U. members in the Bundestag rejected his seemingly contradictory stand on two important -and related-questions. One issue was the party's position on ratification of Brandt's basic-relations treaty with East Germany, which was signed last December. The second was a bill empowering the West German government to apply for membership in the U.N.-a move that would coincide with East Germany's application. In a party caucus, Barzel won support for C.D.U. opposition to the treaty, but lost narrowly on his advocacy...
Barzel's fall is closely connected with his wavering stance on Ostpolitik. Last year, when Bonn's treaties with Moscow and Warsaw came up for ratification in the Bundestag, he failed for months to make up his mind what party policy should be. Just before the Bundestag debate on the treaties, he decided that the C.D.U.-C.S.U. deputies should vote against ratification; then, after a bipartisan policy declaration had been worked out, he said he would allow a free vote. Under pressure from C.S.U. Leader Franz Josef Strauss, he changed his mind again and said that the opposition...
...Hassel, 60, may become floor leader. For the moment, however, Barzel's replacement on the floor is 69-year-old Kurt Georg Kiesinger, West Germany's Christian Democratic Chancellor from 1966 to 1969. Late last week Kiesinger watched his party go down to defeat as the Bundestag backed by a 51-vote margin Brandt's treaty with East Germany...