Word: rau
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There was something schizophrenic about last week's Social Democratic Party congress in Nuremberg. On one hand the 430 delegates overwhelmingly endorsed a moderate, Johannes Rau, 55, as their candidate for Chancellor in next January's general election. On the other, they saddled him with a left-leaning party platform that called for, among other things, the total phase-out of nuclear energy, the withdrawal of NATO missiles from West Germany, the formation of "partnerships for peace" with the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe, and the reorganization of the West German army in order to "render it incapable of offensive...
...Rau, who has little personal influence within the S.P.D. leadership, faithfully echoed the party line in a 90-minute speech on the second day of the conference. "Our goal," he said, "is a European peace order that goes beyond the (East-West) blocs and finally overcomes them." Calling for a "nuclear-free corridor in Central Europe," he demanded the withdrawal from West Germany of NATO's U.S.-built Pershing and cruise missiles as well as a pullout from Eastern Europe of Moscow's tactical missiles and a "drastic reduction" in Soviet SS-20 medium-range rockets. He promised, if elected...
...there much enthusiasm for former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's admonition that Rau "will need your solidarity and self-discipline to win." The delegates' tepid response seemed emblematic of the near-total exclusion of Schmidt's moderate, pragmatic faction from the party leadership since he ) resigned as the Social Democratic vice chairman in 1983. Since then, Schmidt's pro-NATO, anti-Communist views have been eclipsed by party chairman and ex- Chancellor Willy Brandt's policies, which are based on the view that the Soviet Union poses no military threat to Western Europe. If there is a threat...
Kohl's Christian Democrat-led coalition continues to favor more nuclear plants. The rival Social Democrats, who in the elections will be headed by Johannes Rau, the minister-president of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, want to phase out existing facilities "as soon as is feasible." The ecology- minded Greens have been gaining in strength since Chernobyl, and their demand that the nation's 20 commercial atomic plants be immediately closed seems attuned to the mood of the country; a recent survey found that 69% of those questioned oppose further nuclear expansion...
...that the Chancellor's long-promised economic Wende, or turnaround, has not fully materialized; indeed, in February, national unemployment soared to a postwar high of 10.6%. To make matters worse, Kohl's protege, Bernhard Worms, was trounced in the race for North Rhine-Westphalia state leader by Incumbent Johannes Rau. With his moderate views and good-natured disposition, Rau may eventually displace the lackluster Hans-Jochen Vogel as the Social Democrats' parliamentary leader and mount a formidable challenge for the chancellorship...