Top German court to rule on political tactic

Press, 10 January 1983, Page 8

Top German court to rule on political tactic

NZPA-Reuter Bonn West Germany's highest court will meet tomorrow to consider whether the President, Dr Karl Carstens, acted legally when he dissolved Parliament on Friday to pave the way for a General Election. Dr Carstens, a doctor of laws,'admitted in a television address that he had serious misgivings about the action. But he had decided to meet the wishes of the four parties in Parliament that the Bundestag (Lower House) be dissolved and new elections held on March 6.

An official spokesman said that the Federal Constitutional Court would begin deliberations on a request by a lawyer, Oskar Redelberger, for'the President's decision to be set aside on the ground that it violated the Constitution.

Karl Hofmann, an independent member of Parliament. said that he also would complain to the Court; other parliamentarians' were thought to be considering similar moves.

The complaints arise from the manner in which the Chancellor. Dr Helmut Kohl, set the process in motion — by intentionally losing a vote of no-confidence although his

Government enjoyed a clear majority in the House. West Germany's Constitution, drafted in the aftermath of World War Two, was framed to prevent frequent dissolutions of Parliament and to avoid political instability of the sort which helped Adolf Hitler to power. Dr Kohl had promised early elections when his Centre-Right government took power on October 1 after the formation of a coalition with the Free Democratic Party, until then allied with Social Democrats of the former Chancellor,

Helmut Schmidt

Dr Carstens told the nation that coalition leaders had assured him they had given Dr Kohl only a limited mandate to govern. The President said that it was not his task to discover why each Government deputy had abstained in the no-confidence vote. He noted that all Parliamentary parties and most West Germans wanted new elections. But Mr Hofmann, an Independent deputy since his expulsion from the Social Democratic Party last year, insisted that Dr Kohl did have a working majority. The Left-wing politician, who is certain to lose this seat in new elections without party backing, said he would ask the Constitutional Court to rule against the President’s decision.

Full-scale campaigning for the election began at the week-end. unemployment and American medium-range nuclear missiles emerging as the main issues. The Christian Democrats. Dr Kohl’s party, made it clear yesterday that they would lay the blame for West Germany’s growing unemployment on Mr Schmidt’s Government.

The Christian Democrats' general secretary and Health Minister. Mr Heiner Geissler. branded the Social Democrats as “the party of unemployment. bankruptcy and State debts."

Unemployment in West Germany rose half a million last year to reach 2.2 milllion in December — 9.1 per cent of the work-force — and is expected to hit the 2.5 million mark before the end of this (northern) winter. Conservatives have said that they believe the electorate is sophisticated enough to realise that the Centre-Right coalition has not had enough time to make inroads on a rising unemployment rate left by the previous government.

A . Social Democrats' executive member. Wolfgang Roth, responded by accusing the Government ’of doing nothing about unemployment and leaving market forces to deal with the problem. If unemployment is undoubtedly the issue which most worries the average voter, the prospect of medium-range American nuclear missiles being deployed in West Germany later this year is a close second.