Word: kohl
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...months Chancellor Helmut Kohl tried to turn a mere legalism into votes. He insisted that the boundaries of postwar Poland, a third of which comprises former German territory, could be finally accepted only by a unified Germany. Kohl never really questioned Poland's borders; they have already been guaranteed by a treaty between Bonn and Warsaw. It was Kohl's lack of sensitivity that upset so many Germans and foreigners. In his effort to retain political support from survivors and families of some 12 million Germans expelled from the eastern regions of the old Reich, Kohl was willing to stoke...
Protests poured in from East and West, but it was Kohl's Foreign Minister and coalition partner, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who called a halt. At a tense 3 1/2-hour meeting of the ruling parties last week, Genscher's Free Democrats warned that they would walk out and bring down the government if the Chancellor did not put the Polish issue to rest. Reluctantly, Kohl was forced to choose statesmanship over politics. "Mistakes were made on all sides," he conceded, "including by me." The Bundestag then adopted a resolution calling on both Germanys to guarantee Poland's borders later this month...
Most irksome so far has been Kohl's refusal to state unambiguously that a united Germany would lay no claim to land east of the Oder-Neisse line, which constitutes the present border between East Germany and Poland. When challenged, Kohl hides behind legalisms. His motives, however, are political: a vocal minority of the descendants of 13 million Germans who fled those territories after 1945 still lays claim to lands that are now part of Poland and the Soviet Union. Kohl needs their vote in West Germany's December election...
...Chancellor's stand has prompted unusual statements of concern from some close allies. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has complained that Kohl's behavior is "excessive." President Bush, who met with Kohl over the weekend at Camp David, let it be known in advance that he planned to press the West German to allay Polish concern on the border question...
...Kohl aroused similar anxieties two weeks ago when he snubbed East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow during a visit to Bonn. Kohl high-handedly announced that his government would hold back a $9 billion package of aid to East Germany until after the March 18 elections. In a speech to the East German parliament, an embittered Modrow declared that his country "will not enter a unified Germany as a beggar or wearing a hair shirt...