Schmidt Govt back in power with increased majority

Press, 7 October 1980, Page 9

Schmidt Govt back in power with increased majority

NZPA-Reuter Bonn Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has been returned to power in West Germany with an increased majority, but he may have to make some concessions to his junior coalition partners, the Centrist Free Democratic Party.

The Free Democrats under the popular Foreign Minister (Mr Hans-Dietrich Genscher) scored the biggest gains in parliamentary elections on Sunday, boosting their share of the vote from 7.9 per cent in 1976 to 10.6 per cent.

Although Mr Genscher made clear yesterday that he would not be seeking more Government posts for the Free Democrats, senior officials in the Chancellor’s Social Democratic Party said they expected to have to make policy., concessions to Mr Genschers party. These might involve public spending cuts, less worker co-management in the steel industry, and changes in family policy, the. sources suggested. The big loser was the Right-wing Bavarian Premier (Mr Franz Josef Strauss), under whose controversial leadership, the Christian Democraitc Union and the Christian Social Union polled their lowest score

since the Federal Republic’s first election in 1949. The C.D.U.-C.S.U. lost 4.1 per cent compared with 1976, taking 44.5 per cent of the poll. Their losses were worst in the north and among Protestant voters, according to vote analysts. There was disappointment at Social Democratic headquarters in Bonn where officials had hoped the party would do well enough to replace the C.D.U.-C.S.U. as the biggest parliamentary group. But the Social Democrats advanced only 0.3 per cent to 42.9 per cent despite a highly personalised campaign aimed at cashing in on Mr Schmidt’s broad popularity, even among C.D.U. voters.

But it appeared that voters, alienated by the illtempered duel between the two heavyweights, Mr Schmidt and Mr Strauss, turned increasingly in the final days of the campaign to Mr Genscher, admired for his calm andfactual performance.

The Chancellor told reporters that negotiations for a new coalition would start today. Neither he nor Mr Genscher foresaw any difficulties.

Mr Schmidt said that his Government’s immediate aim

would be to pursue its policy. of securing a military balance in Europe, pressing for disarmament and strengthening understanding with West Germany’s neighbours, including those in the East.

Although his coalition partners, the Free Democrats made the more spectacular gains, the Government parties’ victory was also a solid endorsement for Mr Schmidt, who turned a conservative tide in West German politics to his own advantage. . Son of a Hamburg schoolteacher, Mr Schmidt replaced the Social Democratic chairman, Willy Brandt, in the Chancellery in 1974, just as the West German economy was feeling . the first shudders of the oil-price explosion. Provisional official results as announced by the Federal Election Office (1976 results in brackets): Christian Democrats (C.D.U.-C.5.U..) 44.5 (48.6); Social Democrats (S.P.D.) 42.9 (42.6); Free Democrats (F.D.P.) 10.6 (7.9); Environmentalists (Greens) 1.5 ( —■); others 0.5 (0.9). Parliamentary seats: C.D.U.-C.S.U. 226 (243); S.P.D. 218 (214), F.D.P. 53 (39). Voter turn-out: 37,942,452 (88.7 per cent).