Schmidt is out, Kohl is in, and an ambiguous new era beckons
Finally, the weeks of confusion and political conniving had come to an end. Bored though they were by a debate that had droned on for more than five hours, members of West Germany's parliament watched closely as Bundestag President Richard Stücklen rose to make a curt announcement: the opposition motion of no confidence in the minority government of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt had carried by a vote of 256 to 235, with four abstentions. While colleagues began congratulating Opposition Leader Helmut Kohl, the Christian Democratic Party chairman grinned broadly as he acknowledged the results of the ballot. Said Kohl: "Mr. President, I accept the vote."
Through a seldom used constitutional provision called a "constructive" vote of no confidence, Kohl, 52, had become West Germany's sixth and youngest postwar Chancellor, ending 13 years of continuous rule by Social Democratic governments. Hours after the decision, an ebullient Kohl, garbed in cutaway coat, striped trousers and top hat, accepted the formal document of his appointment from Karl Carstens, President of the Federal Republic. Kohl declared his unprecedented parliamentary victory "a great day for democracy" and proclaimed the task ahead to be "a spiritual and moral challenge."
Last week's momentous Bundestag vote grew out of weeks of virtual paralysis and political infighting between the country's major parties following the Sept. 17 breakup of Helmut Schmidt's ruling center-left coalition. It marked the first time in West Germany's postwar history that a change in leadership was brought about by the use of the "constructive" procedure.* The unorthodox method of the changing of the guard in Bonn gave an element of instability and uncertainty to the fledgling Kohl government, which has tentatively promised national elections for next March 6. Kohl's new coalition is untested, and his Christian Democratic Union has not been overwhelmingly successful in recent state elections. Kohl's new junior partners, the Free Democrats, led by Schmidt's former Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, carry the stigma of having bolted from their longtime coalition with the Social Democrats. Since then they have suffered severe setbacks at the state level.
Beyond that, the new Chancellor will face vigorous opposition from the Social Democrats and from West Germany's rising third force of environmentalists and antinuclear activists known as the Greens. Kohl seemed to grasp the political difficulties confronting him as he faced television cameras after the Bundestag vote. Said he: "Now I am the Chancellor. I have been in politics too long, know too much about the daily routine of politics, not to know what difficulties lie ahead."