(5 of 8)
The keynote was struck by Kohl, who vowed that the question was "whether West Germany has the will and the ability to oppose, with its allies, the Soviet Union's demand for supremacy." Facing up to the Soviet walkout threat, Kohl declared that "whoever knuckles under to the pressure of a dictatorship always encourages fresh extortions and the use of force." Kohl's words drew a scathing rejoinder from the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD), whose leadership had decided over the previous weekend to reverse a four-year-old party position and call for a delay in the Pershing deployment. Arguing that Soviet proposals "have not been examined seriously," SPD Floor Leader Hans-Jochen Vogel declared that an agreement with Moscow was "within reach." While pledging his party's support for NATO, Vogel argued that Kohl's backing of the U.S. was damaging the country. Said Vogel: "You have confused friendship with politeness, and cooperation with vassal-like subservience." The same theme was taken up by former Chancellor Willy Brandt, who termed Kohl "the alliance's best pupil."
The only notable attempt at critical evenhandedness from the opposition came from former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who first gave prominence to the Soviet SS-20 threat back in 1977. As if to show his contempt for current Social Democratic policies, Schmidt tossed paper airplanes labeled "Pershing II" around the Bundestag during Brandt's speech. In his first speech to parliament since losing office to Kohl more than a year ago, Schmidt said he still believed deployment of the new missiles was necessary to correct the nuclear imbalance created in Europe by the Soviet Union and to preserve West German credibility in the eyes of its allies. But Schmidt refused to vote with the government because he disputed Kohl's claim that the U.S. had made sufficient efforts to bring about an agreement. Washington, Schmidt declared, would have to share with Moscow the blame for the deadlock in Geneva.
West Germany's maverick anti-nuclear party, the Greens, did its best to obstruct the debate.
About an hour into Kohl's opening speech, a few of the 28 Greens deputies walked toward the Chancellor carrying large photos representing Hiroshima, Viet Nam, the Warsaw ghetto and Nicaragua. They were turned back by ushers. Later, the Greens attempted to stage a filibuster, invoking the right of each member to give a five-minute speech explaining his or her vote. The maneuver delayed proceedings by two hours.
Outside the legislature, feelings rose even higher as 3,500 demonstrators converged on the low-slung concrete parliament building. Their plan, well-advertised beforehand, was to "storm" the Bundestag to show their disapproval of the deployment decision. The protesters encountered a solid wall of green-uniformed police, backed up by armored water cannon. After first shooting a long, hard shower at the crowd, the police rushed the mob with plastic shields. Frustrated, the demonstrators drifted toward the city center to listen to further harangues against the NATO deployment. In all, 189 protesters were arrested during the two-day debate; most of them were held only briefly.