Word: centrist
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...staid predictability of Bonn politics quickly took on the intrigue of a Florentine court last week. Initially, Kohl was confident that former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, leader of the centrist Free Democrats who bolted Schmidt's government, could deliver at least 33 votes from his party's 51 members of parliament. This total would provide Kohl 259 votes, when added to the 226 of his coalition. Schmidt's S.P.D. has only 215 seats, and depended on heavy Free Democrat support to stay in office. Kohl and Genscher had been talking quietly of creating a new center...
...then had Italy's politicians subjected the country to a 17-day political crisis? The explanation was typically Florentine. Four weeks ago, Spadolini's five-party centrist coalition tried to push through parliament part of a new austerity program designed to boost industrial production, reduce the balance of payments deficit and curb inflation. A renegade group of Christian Democrats broke party discipline and rejected a government proposal aimed at squeezing more tax revenues from the oil industry. Charging that the country was "ungovernable," Socialist Leader Bettino Craxi withdrew his party's seven ministers from the Cabinet. Given...
...elder statesman who would no doubt have been the first choice of M.P.s in a smoke-filled room. The winner was Roy Jenkins, 61, a venerable politician who served in several Labor Cabinets and as president of the Brussels-based European Commission before helping form the new centrist party last year...
Most civilian leaders remained skeptical of the army's intentions. Declared Antonio Troccoli of the centrist Radical Party: "We will not judge names but will wait until concrete steps and policies are set down." Bignone's openness may clash with the tough views of Lieut. General Cristino Nicolaides, 57, who as army Commander in Chief acts as the true fount of authority. "It's difficult to make sense of a situation in which you have a hard-liner swearing in a moderate," reflects a diplomat in Buenos Aires...
...trying to present a somewhat similar image of his policy toward the Soviet Union: a string of arms-control proposals coupled with unyielding resistance to Soviet expansionism. Touring Europe two weeks ago, the President waved the olive branch so heavily that he stirred talk of a "new Reagan"-flexible, centrist and eager to negotiate. But last week, almost on the eve of new U.S.-Soviet disarmament talks, he decided to highlight the other aspect of his strategy. The old Reagan abruptly reappeared, rattling the arrows...