Word: schmidts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...longer. Schmidt today is in deep trouble. The West German economy is in the doldrums. His coalition government, which was narrowly returned in the national election last October,* is strained close to the breaking point. Schmidt's own Social Democratic Party (S.P.D.) is in disarray, and relations with the U.S. are difficult. Twice last month the Chancellor narrowly avoided humiliating parliamentary defeats. Because of defections within the S.P.D., the government's tax package passed by a scant three votes. Last week, at a tumultuous session of the Bundestag, the coalition defeated a censure motion against Schmidt...
Some close aides of the Chancellor believe he is so resigned to eventual defeat that he may ask for a vote of confidence in the Bundestag in early fall. According to this scenario, Schmidt would lose and call for a new national election, which the opposition Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union alliance would almost certainly win. The reasoning behind this strategy: the new government would bog down in the economic and social difficulties facing the country, and thereby prepare the way for a revamped and refreshed S.P.D. to win a clear majority in the 1981 election, without the need...
Although it is still the strongest major Western European nation, West Germany faces an unemployment rate that hovers around 4%-disturbingly high for a country that four years ago was importing labor and still has 1.9 million foreign workers. Federal government economists have scaled down Schmidt's confident prediction of a 5% G.N.P. growth rate for 1977 to 4.5% at best. Partly because of joblessness, West German youth are restless. Predicts one top-level federal Education Ministry official: "I think we can expect trouble in the fall when the schools reopen...
Despite his reputation as a tough taskmaster, Schmidt has been unable to impose discipline and unity on the S.P.D. The party's rebellious left wing complains that the government, by cutting back on planned increases in the government's share of medical care and student assistance, is reneging on its promise to pursue a vigorous social reforms policy. In economic policy, Schmidt has been cautiously conservative, fearing that too much stimulation would trigger a high inflationary cycle. Says one disaffected S.P.D. Bundestag member: "Hell, Schmidt could just as well be Chancellor of the C.D.U...
Significantly, party whips had to go all out to round up support for Schmidt on the censure vote that was brought by the opposition on a legal technicality. (The constitutional court ruled that Schmidt, while Finance Minister in 1973, had exceeded his authority by spending beyond the budget without parliamentary approval...