THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410190015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Helmut Kohl has proved himself modern Germany's most durable politician since Konrad Adenauer, the Christian Democratic chancellor who founded the Federal Republic of Germany out of the ashes of the Third Reich. Kohl's victory on Sunday, though narrow, is a strong indication that Europe's most important country has opted for stability and sense after a dangerous period of uncertainty following the collapse of the old East Germany and reunification.
Kohl, 64, has been at the helm of, first, West Germany, then the reunified Germany, since 1982. At one point last winter, he was down in the polls by double digits and looked to be a sure loser. But the deep economic recession has abated somewhat since then and Kohl's Christian Democratic/Free Democratic coalition won 48.3 percent of the vote, compared with 48.1 percent for all the opposition parties combined.
Most significant was the rejection, by and large, of extremes of the right and left. The Party of Democratic Socialism, the old East German Communist Party with a new name, took only 4.3 percent of the vote. The Republican Party, a neo-Nazi organization that appeared to be on a roll a few years ago with its anti-immigrant platform, garnered a dismal 1.5 percent.
The anti-technology environmentalist Green Party received a surprisingly strong 7 percent of the vote. But the Greens' showing is more likely attributable to voter disgust at the lackluster campaign waged by the mainstream left-liberal party, the Social Democrats, rather than any inherent appeal of the Green agenda.
Kohl is a man of real accomplishments. He grasped the opportunity for German unification when Mikhail Gorbachev offered it, and even though the cost of re-unification has been unexpectedly high, Russian troops are now gone from German soil. Kohl's solid frame is a reassuring one on the European scene, and he deserves another term. by CNB