ABSTRACT
Election 1983 The s P D and its sympathisers strongly attacked Kohl for his method of achieving office, forgetting that the S P D had itself come to office in 1966 by such means and remained there for three years without facing the electorate. Kohl, however, was prepared to go to the country and ask for a mandate, which he got on 6 March 1983. The C D u/C SU got its highest percentage poll since 1957 (48.8), the s p d went down from 42.9 to 38.2, while the FDP looked precarious with only 6.9 per cent (down from 10.6). The Social Democrats had suffered losses to the Greens who entered parliament with 5.6 per cent and the FDP had lost votes to the SPD. Helmut Schmidt did not stand as his party’s Chancellor candidate and it was difficult for the s p d to find a replacement for this highly popular politician. Hans-Jochim Vogel (bom 1926), the spd candidate for Chancellor, was a moderate and a man of great experience. A Catholic lawyer, he had served as s p d mayor of Munich, Minister of Town Planning and then of Justice; yet
he lacked the charisma of Schmidt and presided over a divided party. Kohl, on the other hand, had a towering physical presence and spoke with conviction. The main issues of the election were defence and the economy. Kohl came out strongly for N A T 0 , the double track decision and the Federal Republic’s close relationship with the USA. He reminded audiences that they had U S troops in West Germany and free trade unions. In Poland they had Soviet troops and no free unions. It was simple but effective. Most voters believed that Kohl’s govern ment, backed by business, was more likely than the S P D to solve the problem of unemployment, which had reached the highest level since the early 1950s. Kohl probably benefited slightly from the swing to the right in the USA and Britain headed by the powerful figures of Ronald Reagan (1981-89) and Margaret Thatcher (1979-90). The French socialist President, Frangois Mitterrand, seemed to come to his aid as well. He visited Bonn on the twentieth anniversary of the Franco-German Friendship Treaty in January 1983 making a strong speech closely supporting Kohl’s stand on defence, commenting ‘the missiles are in the East, and the pacifists are in the West’. The composition of Helmut Kohl’s government remained virtually
the same after the election as before. The f d p lost agriculture, being reduced from four ministers to three. The main government members after Kohl were: Hans-Dietrieh Genscher (F D p), deputy Chancellor and Foreign Minister; Friedrich Zimmerman (c S U), Interior; Gerhard Stoltenberg (C D u), Finance; Otto Graf Lambsdorff (F D p), Economics; Manfred Womer (c D u), Defence; Norbert Bliim, from the blue collar wing of the c d u , Labour and Social Policy. The other f d p minister was Hans Engelhard at Justice. In the 17-member government the only woman was Dorothee Wilms (C D u), Minister of Education and Science. Later the government was increased by three, with Professor Rita Sussmuth (c D u) becoming Minister for Youth, the Family, Women and Health in September 1985; Walter Wallmann (C D u), Minister for Environment, Protection of Nature and Nuclear Safety from June 1986; and Wolfgang Sehauble (c D u), Minister for Special Tasks from November 1984.
