Word: schmidts
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Since the coalition's breakup, Schmidt's party has received a "sympathy boost." The latest Allensbach poll showed that the Social Democrats have rebounded from a low ebb of 31.4% last July to 36.8%. During the Hesse campaign, the S.P.D. plastered Free Democratic posters with red stickers denouncing their "Betrayal in Bonn." In recent speeches, Schmidt has heaped scorn on the Free Democrats, calling Genscher a Weinpanscher (someone who sells wine diluted with water). As he took the helm of a riverboat on the Rhine last week, Schmidt implied that he was glad...
...parliamentary ploy bears the sinister label of Königsmord (murder of a king), but the intent is entirely bloodless. As soon as Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's ruling coalition crumbled two weeks ago, Opposition Leader Helmut Kohl pressed ahead with his plan to become West Germany's first Christian Democratic Chancellor in 13 years. Rebuffing Schmidt's call for elections, Kohl prepared to introduce a rarely used vote of no confidence in the Bundestag to bring down Schmidt's minority government immediately. If his strategy works, Kohl will move into the modern glass-and-steel Chancellery...
...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...
Kohl, on the other hand, is anxious to keep Genscher and the F.D.P. as a counterweight to Strauss, who was defeated handily in the 1980 elections by Schmidt. Kohl knows that governing with the formidable Bavarian at his elbow would be like a dachshund's trying to control a rogue elephant. In addition, Kohl feels that the Christian Democrats need to forge a strong alliance with the F.D.P. if they hope to remain in power for more than one term. Kohl is reported to believe that the conservatives in West Germany today do not hold a "natural" majority, since...
...moment, the traumatic divorce has silenced Schmidt's left-wing critics. Writers and intellectuals who opposed the Social Democratic leadership's decision to accept NATO's installation of cruise and Pershing II nuclear missiles on West German soil next year are again rallying around the party. Author Günter Grass and his wife have for the first time become card-carrying members of the S.P.D. because they did not believe in being schönwetter (fairweather) socialists...