Central Europe
Central Europe Federal Republic of Germany Internal Politics W EST GERMAN political life in 1976 was dominated by the Bundestag election of October 3. The campaign slogan of the Social Democratic party (SPD) was "Model Germany—Freedom, Security, Social Democracy," while the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) used the aggressive slogan "Freedom instead of Socialism." Under the leadership of Premier Helmut Kohl of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, its candidate for chancellor, the CDU/CSU was confident that it would be able to defeat the governing coalition of Social Democrats and Free Democrats (FDP). But the elections gave a narrow victory to the govern- ment, and it remained in office with a reduced parliamentary majority. Of the eligible voters, 90.7 per cent went to the polls. The SPD received 16,099,019 votes (42.6 per cent), the CDU 14,367,302 (38 per cent), the CSU 4,027,499 (10.6 per cent), and the FDP 2,995,085 (7.9 per cent). The right-wing extremist National Democratic party (NPD), which in 1969 almost won a seat in the Bundestag, received 122,661 votes (0.3 per cent), as against the 207,465 (0.6 per cent) in 1972. The German Communist party (DKP) received 118,581 votes (0.3 per cent) and the Communist party (KPD) 22,714 (0.1 per cent). The distribution of seats in the new Bundestag was as follows: SPD 214, CDU 190, CSU 53, and FDP 39. On December 15 the Bundestag reelected Helmut Schmidt chancellor, but with only 249 votes, one more than the required absolute majority of the deputies.
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