Word: straussed
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...fragile in recent photographs, but during the Central Committee plenum, he was well enough to receive Prime Minister Dom Mintoff of Malta in Changsha, capital of his native Hunan province; while the People's Congress was in session, he met with West German Political Leader Franz Josef Strauss. It is one thing, however, for Mao to chat for short periods with visiting dignitaries, but quite another to sit through days of intensive political discussion in Peking...
...Strauss has been a rallying point for Germans who still dream of reunification. His unconcealed hatred of the Soviet and East Berlin regimes made him the leading opponent in the Bundestag of former Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik. He has not budged in his position. Interviewed recently in his Munich penthouse, he told TIME Correspondent Christopher Byron: "Ostpolitik's trade deals are absurd. First we offer to sell the Soviets something; then we give them the money to buy it. That's a marvelous way of doing business, isn't it? We should concentrate on improving...
...Strauss's ideas are being more favorably received these days as West Germans seem to be moving politically rightward in reaction to the 4% unemployment and last year's 7% inflation that are following a generation of nearly uninterrupted prosperity. The worse things get for Germany, the better they get for Strauss, who is still viewed by many as a fiscal genius who kept the Wirtschaftswunder booming through the late 1960s...
...Three years ago Strauss, perhaps only half in jest, said, "I hope things never get so bad for the German people that they have to elect me Chancellor." Experts agree that conditions will have to get considerably worse if Strauss is to have a real chance of winning the top job. Despite the growing popularity of what he says, he personally remains intensely disliked and feared outside Bavaria as ein gefährlicher Mann (a dangerous man). That may be a reaction not only to his ultraconservatism but also to the authoritarianism he demonstrated in his Cabinet positions...
According to experts, Strauss trails far behind both Helmut Kohl, national chairman of the Christian Democrats, and Gerhard Stoltenberg, who is minister president of Schleswig-Holstein, the two front runners for the C.D.U. chancellorship nomination. Instead of becoming Chancellor, Strauss may have to content himself with being a kingmaker whose support will be necessary for anyone seeking the nomination. Then, if the C.D.U. wins, Strauss's prize could be the Foreign Ministry, a post he covets second only to the Chancellor's office...