Germany's Chancellor Helmut Kohl attempted yesterday to end squabbling within his coalition government and to revive his beleaguered campaign to win a record fifth term in office. Dr. Kohl backed his deputy, Mr. Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has been the focus for criticism from the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) and expressed confidence that the centre-right coalition will win September's election.
The chancellor acknowledged that there were differences among the coalition partners but he said that the government had survived internal tensions throughout its 16 years in office and that current disagreements were no worse than previous conflicts.
The governing coalition is trailing in opinion polls, which all predict that Dr. Kohl will be ousted by his Social Democratic (SPD) challenger, Mr Gerhard Schroeder. Mr Schroeder is savouring the afterglow of last week's triumphant SPD conference in Leipzig where the party showed unity in backing his Blairite, business-friendly manifesto.
The chancellor insisted yesterday that the public would soon tire of Mr Schroeder and realise that Germany needs experienced leadership at a time of great international changes.
"We have indisputably become number one in Europe and that does not only inspire joy in our partners," Dr. Kohl said. He recalled the sceptical reaction of some EU countries to German reunification and said that he wanted to ensure that Germany's partners would accept the country's leadership role within Europe. He repeated his criticism of "a tendency in the EU commission" to weaken the subsidiarity principle and to centralise power in Europe.
Dr. Kohl said that the challenge facing Germany in Europe was his chief motivation for seeking a fifth term in office, adding that much was expected of Bonn's EU presidency in the first half of 1999.
The chancellor said he was confident that a row between Bonn and Paris over who should lead the new European Central Bank will be resolved when EU leaders meet next month. Germany favours the Dutch central banker, Mr Wim Duisenberg, but France has nominated the president of the Bank of France, Mr JeanClaude Trichet.
Most observers expect a compromise solution which will make Mr Duisenberg president with Mr Trichet as his deputy.
Dr. Kohl, who has just returned from a fasting holiday during which he lost 15 kilos, received support yesterday from the leader of Germany's employers' federation, Mr Hans-Olaf Henkel, who said that most Social Democrats were less business-friendly than Mr. Schroeder.
The Red Army Faction (RAF) urban guerrilla group that rocked Germany with assassinations of politicians and businessmen in the 1970s and 1980s, has disbanded. "The RAF emerged from a liberation action nearly 28 years ago. Today we are ending this project," the group, which was also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang after its founders, announced yesterday.
