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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, May 6, 1980
Page 17
The North Rhine Westphalia election, bad as it was for Strauss and the
CDU, nevertheless contained one ray of hope for them. Although the SPD
won big, their coalition partner in Bonn, the Free Democrats (FDP) lost
out completely. The FDP just barely missed the 5% minimum vote threshold.
There is thus the danger--to Chancellor Schmidt--that the Free Democrats
might suffer the same fate in the October 5 election. This would remove
at a stroke the FDP from the Bonn Parliament, where its 39 members provide
vital coalition support without which Herr Schmidt's government could
tumble. The FDP was hit hard in North Rhine-Westphalia by the "Greens"-
the environmentalists --who robbed them of 40,000 votes.
Thus, despite the May 11 setback, all is not lost for Mr. Strauss, espe
cially now that he has hit the campaign trail in true Straussian form.
"With a hard hitting Herr Strauss at the hustings," reports the Daily
Telegraph of May 13, "and signs of fierce Left Wing agitation breaking
out afresh, West Germany could see its most turbulent election campaign
since 1949." New York's Journal of Commerce, in a dispatch from Bonn,
adds that the campaign promises to be "one of the most aggressively,
bitterly and brutally fought political contests" in German history.
Postcript: The Common Market, in a decision reached by its finance
ministers last Friday, apparently has healed for now the budget dispute
reported in last week's Pastor General's Report. However, bitter feelings
across the Channel still run deep. And speaking of the Channel, plans for
the Channel tunnel (reported in this publication on Feb. 15, 1980) con
tinue to advance. The Channel project (which if started is expected to
be completed by 1988) is curiously tied into the EEC budget dispute. Note
this comment from the article "The 'Chunnel' Lives" in the latest issue
(May-June, 1980) of Europe, a semi-official publication of EEC activities:
"None of the [tunnel] projects would have a chance of getting off the
ground without the present crisis in the Community over Britain's contri
butions to the EC budget. Britain claims it is 'owed' a repayment of
over $2 billion because its EC contributions are too large. None of its
partners are prepared to pay back the cash by writing out a check.
Officials in the EC Commission, particularly those in transport, are
privately working on a package of schemes for EC funding that could
benefit Britain. One of those items is the Channel tunnel. Britain is
reluctant to accept payment in this way, but the only alternative might
be to leave the Community, which Prime Minsiter Thatcher is not keen to
do either. If the Chunnel does indeed get the go-ahead, it will thus be
not as a project born of European idealism and aimed to improve transport
links, but as a compromise designed to paper over massive disagreements
in the financing of the Community."
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau