Word: erhards
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...tragic and ironic spectacle. For almost 17 years, Ludwig Erhard had been lionized as the No. 1 vote getter of West Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union. On his prestige, scores of C.D.U. politicians had ridden to election victories. Many of them were seated before him last week in the caucus room of the Bundeshaus in Bonn. They knew that they had been summoned to watch as Erhard's enemies tightened the pressure on him to resign. But no one knew whether the Chancellor would turn with a roar on his tormentors or go along with those...
...turned out, Erhard did neither. His blue eyes watery and his shoulders hunched, he stood grimly at the podium. He would step aside, he said, but only if he failed to form a new government that commanded a majority of the votes in the Bundestag. Thus he intended to go back to the Free Democrats whose sudden resignation from the Cabinet two weeks ago over budget problems had left the Chancellor with a minority government. If that failed, said Erhard, "I am not stuck to my office, but I do claim participation in all further negotiations...
...Elbow. Erhard's decision to avoid a showdown brought sighs of relief from the Brutuses within his party who had been fearful of the consequences to their own reputations if they bloodied their hands in public. But there was little chance that Erhard would succeed in forming a new coalition government...
...thing, the Free Democrats were now saying that they would not rejoin a Cabinet under Erhard. Burly, ambitious Franz Josef Strauss, who is boss of the Bavarian wing of the Christian Democrats, was elbowing Erhard by threatening to pull his six ministers out of the government unless the Chancellor went ahead and stepped down. And the C.D.U.'s Deputy Leader Rainer Barzel, who had been instrumental in forcing Erhard to face the caucus, was now maneuvering to isolate Erhard from any remaining support. About the only Erhard enemy not on the scene was flinty old (90) Konrad Adenauer. Though...
...opposition parties will not give Erhard any breathing time. Since they were leading in the polls, the Social Democrats were trying to force new national elections. They vowed that they would demand that the Chancellor submit to a Bundestag vote of confidence this week. It seemed highly unlikely that . he would oblige, and some Socialists were plotting with the Free Democrats to combine the votes of the two groups just long enough to elect a new Chancellor-whose sole act would be to call for new national elections...