ABSTRACT
On 25 July 1975, the parliamentary faction of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) introduced a motion to the Bonn Bundestag to request the Social Democratic/Liberal (SPD/FDP) government of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt not to sign the Helsinki Final Act. As expected, given the distribution of seats in parliament, the conservative opposition parties were defeated. Nonetheless, this move constituted the most visible opposition in Europe to the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) process and its Final Act. After all, the CDU/CSU then represented about 45 percent of the FRG electorate and would lose the upcoming 1976 election just by a hair’s breadth, garnering almost 49 percent of the vote.
