No major changes in West Germany’s foreign policy are expected as a result of the elections which swept Chancellor Willy Brandt’s left-liberal government coalition to victory. Results compiled by the Federal Election Commissioner gave Brandt’s Social Democratic Party 45.9 percent of the almost 40 million votes cast, 3.2 percent more than the SDP received in 1969. Brandt’s coalition partner, the liberal Free Democrats won 8.4 percent of the vote or 2.6 percent more than they won in 1969. The two parties will control the new Bundestag (lower house of Parliament) with a majority of 48 seats instead of the 12-seat edge it had when it took power in 1969.
One of the most important results of yesterday’s elections was the complete rout of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NDP). In many constituencies the NDP won less than 0.1 percent of the total vote. In many Bavarian areas in which the neo-Nazis had managed to win in 1969 as much as 3 or even 4 percent of the vote, they received less than one-half percent yesterday. In any case the NDP has been definitely barred from the next Federal Parliament.
Other losers in the election were the Christian Democratic Union, led by Rainer Barzel and the Bavarian Christian Social Union, led by Franz-Josef Strauss. This coalition opposition which led the vote in previous elections yesterday ran second to the SDP with 44.8 percent of the vote. The new line-up in the Bundestag will, therefore, be 230 seats for the SDP and 42 for the Free Democrats for a total of 272 seats in the 496-member Bundestag. The two Christian Democratic parties will have 224 deputies.
The reappointment of Dr. Walter School, leader of the Free Democratic Party, as West German Minister for Foreign Affairs is taken for granted, Observers here see this as insurance for the continuation of West German policy towards Israel which, as in the past, will consist of what is described as an alliance of “balance mixed with special relations.”
ISRAELI AND ARAB CIRCLES PLEASED WITH BRANDT
Both Israeli and Arab circles in Bonn are satisfied with Brandt’s victory: the Israelis because of West Germany’s political and diplomatic backing especially within European Common Market affairs, and the Arabs because of West German promises of economic help. West Germany now has diplomatic relations with all the Arab states with the exception of Syria, Iraq and Southern Yemen. Both the Israelis and the Arabs now wait for Brandt to announce whether he is reconfirming his acceptance of Premier Golda Meir’s invitation to Israel and of the date chosen for the visit. Mrs. Meir extended the invitation to Brandt last spring.
The mood of both major political parties here, the SDP and the CDU, is in favor of strengthening a neutral “independent” course between the two sides in the Middle East conflict. The SDP and the CDU have been “upset” by Israel’s angry condemnation of the Federal Government’s handling of the Lufthansa affair when the West German government decided to give in to the hijackers’ demands and release the three detained Palestinian terrorists.
Brandt, SDP sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, has been “seriously touched” by the personal criticisms to which he has been subjected by the Israeli and Jewish press as well as by political personalities in Israel. SDP official sources said that “the Chancellor is aware of everything that has been written or said about him and falls to understand the reasons for these attacks.”
Brandt, according to these sources has been especially upset by a commentary broadcast by the Israeli radio immediately after the Lufthansa incident in which a certain parallel was drawn between what happened to Jews in Germany 40 years ago and what happens now. According to these sources, Brandt felt as if he was being compared to Hitler himself and took this as a personal insult.
PERSPECTIVES FOR OTHER PARTIES
As for the government’s minority coalition party the FDP it is, if anything, determined to follow an even more neutral course than in the past. Scheel is reported to have explained in an off-the-record briefing to West German Journalists a few weeks ago that “there is no one in this government with a Nazi past and no one Israel can press or force to do something which is not in West Germany’s interest.” As for the CDU, its political aspirations are definitely more nationalistic and it is even less bound by the “historic conscience of the past” than the Socialists.
An old and experienced Bonn observer told the JTA: “Germany has entered into its third post-war phase: the first was marked by Dr. Konrad Adenauer’s determination to win international acceptance and recognition, the second by Brandt’s pursuit of an improvement of East-West relations and Bonn’s reconciliation with East Germany and the East European bloc. The third period will be devoted to European integration and an improvement of Germany’s standard of living.
This concentration on internal and European issues has marked the entire electoral campaign in Germany, West Europe’s economic giant, aspiring mainly to international recognition and a role within Western Europe. West German diplomatic circles further told JTA that Germany will now try to improve its relations with the Arab world. They explained that Bonn needs such an amelioration for economic reasons and in order to pave the way to United Nations membership which it is expected to seek some time next year.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
