Kohl now at vital point in bid to form Govt

Press, 18 March 1983, Page 9

Kohl now at vital point in bid to form Govt

NZPA-Reuter Bonn Dr Helmut Kohl’s efforts to form a West German coalition Government reached a crucial stage today when he was to try forging a compromise with the stubborn liberal Free Democrats.

Dr Kohl, returned to power in a premature General Election on March 6, has since been occupied in fending off the demands of his Right-wing Christian Social Union allies under their ambitious leader, Franz Josef Strauss.

But it became clear yesterday that Dr Kohl had satisfied the Bavarians when spokesmen for Dr Kohl’s Christian Democrats and for the union announced agreement on a common concept for coalition talks with the Free Democrats. Dr Kohl also said that he had offered Mr Strauss a role in his Cabinet, without explaining what the job was. There was no confirmation of reports in political circles that a post would be created for him as a security co-ordinator, giving him command of the country’s Intelligence services. Whatever Dr Kohl

worked out in his meeting with Mr Strauss yesterday, it enabled both men and the Free Democrats’ chairman, Mr Hans-Dietrich Genscher, to predict that a coalition agreement would emerge at the week-end.

Today Dr Kohl was turning his persuasive powers on Mr Genscher, who enabled him to become Chancellor by taking the Free Democrats out of its 13-year-old alliance with the

Social Democrats in September to help him form a Centre-Right Government.

The Free Democrats' position has weakened since then. While the Christian Democrats and the union scored a landslide victory in the election, the Free Democrats kept only 34 of their 53 Parliamentary seats.

The Free Democrats have dug in their heels on matters of personnel and policy, refusing to consider yielding the Foreign Minister’s post held by Mr Genscher or the Ministry of Economics, headed by Dr Otto Count Lambsdorff. Mr Strauss, the Bavarian Minister-President, submitted a long paper demanding changes in foreign policy strongly opposed by Mr Genscher.

Conservative newspapers reported bitter exchanges between Mr Strauss and Dr Kohl in the talks.

They said that Mr Strauss wanted Bonn to change its approach to the Third World, giving more help to authoritarian pro-Western States and stopping aid to Left-wing governments.