Political Stance of Kissinger Shifts to Rights, ‘times’ Reports

The political stance of Chancellor Kiesinger has shifted markedly to the right in the past few months and has taken on a distinct nationalist and conservative coloration, New York Times correspondent David Binder reported from Bonn today. He said that senior aides of the Chancellor have described the change as not ideological but an “election tactic” designed to keep the ultra-nationalist, right-wing NPD from winning seats in the Bundestag Sept. 28 and to fend off a challenge from Finance Minister Franz Josef Strauss, an arch conservative who heads the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian branch of the Chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union.

The Chancellor’s aides said his shift in policy was behind Mr. Kiesinger’s support for modification of the Cabinet’s decision to abolish the statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes prosecutions. The Chancellor has gone along with conservative elements in his own and other parties who want the bill to abolish the statute to exempt from prosecution Nazis who did not commit murder directly or who killed on the orders of their superiors.

Other manifestations of a more right-wing, nationalistic viewpoint cited were the delay in Bonn’s promised signing of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty; a harsher attitude toward East Germany and a decision against the upward re-evaluation of the German mark, Mr. Binder reported. As a result of the Chancellor’s shift, all parties in the West German parliament have shifted to the right on many issues, including the Social Democrats, the liberally inclined junior partner in the Bonn coalition Government, Mr. Binder said.

Hitherto regarded as “moderately liberal,” Mr. Kiesinger is described by his aides now as a “nationalist, conservative” and apparently welcomes that label, Mr. Binder said. “One of the Chancellor’s aides said that Mr. Kiesinger would actually welcome foreign denunciation, including American criticism…as grist for his campaign mill on a platform of ‘defending German national interests,’ ” Mr. Binder wrote.