Word: schmidts
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...Angst, an attitude that in some respects is not "far removed from a crisis of confidence," in the words of Karl Otto Pohl, president of West Germany's central bank. And nowhere are the effects of that mood more evident than in the concerned features of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt...
...reelection, West Germany's usually ebullient leader has watched his authority begin to be openly challenged. His German Social Democratic Party (S.P.D.) was ousted from city hall in West Berlin in May. An amorphous left-wing coalition, including important members of his own party, is impugning some of Schmidt's most firmly held policies. Chief among them: Bonn's commitment to the 1979 NATO decision to deploy U.S. missiles to strengthen Europe's military security while at the same time seeking arms limitation through negotiations with Moscow...
...Schmidt had to threaten to resign if his followers decided to thwart the NATO commitment. State and local chapters of the Social Democrats have already tried to do so in Baden-Württemberg and in South Hesse. But while Schmidt is feeling the strain, he is still fighting. Says he: "Do not be deceived by the activities of the young socialists, and do not overestimate them. Angst has become chic. There is no doubt that the majority of [West] Germans and a large majority of the S.P.D. support our foreign and security policies...
That may be so, but some extremely heavy challenges remain for Schmidt. No later than the fall, he must confront the Bundestag with West Germany's 1982 budget. To restore balance to a faltering economy, he needs to make deep cuts in West Germany's cherished social programs. But that could unite in opposition antimilitary leftists in Schmidt's party with those who strongly favor continuing and expanding welfare programs. Schmidt's failure to overcome all of those foes could spell the end of his ruling coalition arrangement with the liberal Free Democratic Party (F.D.P.), which...
...difficulties plaguing West Germany and threatening Schmidt are less a disease than a collection of symptoms. Chief among them is a growing fear of a nuclear confrontation with the Soviets and a conviction among the disaffected (which Moscow skillfully exploits) that the country is merely a pawn in the bellicose designs of the Reagan Administration. Says one senior Western diplomat based in Bonn: "It comes as a surprise at first, but a generation of West Germans who remember neither the war nor the cold war are perfectly capable of accepting Soviet statements at face value...