Word: kohl
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...Kohl inspires confidence abroad but raises worries at home
Like Ronald Reagan, he is a folksy, conservative politician with an easygoing, leisurely work style. But last week, West Germany's newly chosen Chancellor Helmut Kohl, 52, was behaving like a man without a moment to lose. Within three hours of taking over the glass-and-steel Bonn Chancellery from Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt, the Christian Democratic leader had sworn in a new 17-member Cabinet, chaired his first Cabinet meeting, held a press conference and jetted off to Paris for a hastily arranged get-acquainted dinner with his most important Western European partner, French President Fran...
...main question for Kohl is whether or not he will be allowed to lead that government for long. After ending 13 years of Social Democratic coalition rule on Oct. 1 by toppling Schmidt in a Bundestag no-confidence vote, Kohl and his center-right coalition of the Christian Democrat/Christian Social Union (C.D.U./C.S.U.) and the Free Democratic Party (F.D.P.) have all but promised to hold elections by March 6 that could toss the newcomers out of office...
...Kohl will have to tread cautiously at home. Even before his Bundestag victory last week, West Germany's powerful trade unions had begun girding for conflict with the new Chancellor, who must quickly come to grips with problems of the country's sagging economy. The most sensitive issue is social-welfare spending: at a time when 1.8 million West Germans are unemployed, businessmen are complaining loudly that 70% of their labor costs are for social benefits, the steepest percentage in Western Europe. Says Liane Launhardt, an economist for the Frankfurt-based Commerzbank: "There is no doubt that what...
...such move is liable to trigger harsh union reaction. In response to a relatively mild Kohl proposal for limiting public-sector wage increases, Monika Wulf-Mathies, leader of the country's 1 .2 million-member civil servants union, called the plan a "declaration of war," and threatened strike action if the proposal is carried out. Having long and patiently planned his parliamentary assault on the Chancellor's office, Kohl must now prepare for all the battles that his new job will entail...