Coalition in West Germany: agreement reached
Bonn, 20 October
The West German Christian Democratic Party and the minority Free Democratic Party have agreed to form a coalition under Dr Adenauer, a spokesman for the Free Democrats said here tonight. The agreement is subject to the approval of the parliamentary groups of both parties.
Dr Adenauer’s Christian Democratic Party lost its absolute majority in the federal elections last month. Immediately after the election the Free Democrats refused to serve in a coalition under Dr Adenauer, but later their leader, Dr Erich Mende, said they might accept him as chancellor for a limited term. Informed sources said tonight that Dr Adenauer would send a letter to the Free Democrats dealing with how long he intended to hold office in the coalition.
Coalition agreement endorsed
From Terence Prittie
23 October 1961
A special Free Democratic Party meeting called yesterday in Bonn decided by a substantial majority in favour of the proposed coalition with the Christian Democrats, under the chancellorship of Dr Adenauer. This decision has today been communicated to the federal President, Herr Lubke, and will be confirmed on Tuesday by the Bundestag members of the party. The way should then be clear for the formation of the new government by the end of the week.
The only important issue left to be decided in the formation of Dr Adenauer’s fourth Government is who is to be foreign minister. Only after misgivings have the Free Democrats dropped their objections to Dr Adenauer’s becoming chancellor again, and there is to he a “gentlemen’s agreement” under which he will resign before the end of the four-year term, probably in 1963.
Slim majority for Adenauer: chancellor again
From Terence Prittie
8 November 1961
Dr Adenauer was re-elected federal chancellor this evening by the new Bundestag, which was itself elected on September 17. His overall majority was only a small one, for he received 259 votes out of a total of 499 members: there were nine absentees.
The slenderness of his majority is the latest of a number of indications that his fourth Government will not be a strong one. Between them the Christian Democrats and Free Democrats have 308 members in the Bundestag, and today only seven of them were absent. This means that 43 members of the two parties either voted against Dr Adenauer or abstained, and this in spite of their parties having pledged themselves to accept him after seven weeks of intensive negotiations.
The Social Democrats declared today that the agreement on which the new coalition of Christian and Free Democrats is based is unconstitutional. They consider that various clauses bind members of both parties in a manner which is not consonant with the freedom and individual responsibility of members of the Bundestag. In particular the agreement not to accept any offer of coalition by the Social Democrats means that a vote of no confidence in an un unsuccessful chancellor is rendered virtually impossible.
Editorial: coalition in Germany
8 November 1961
Dr Adenauer’s re-election as chancellor of Western Germany has ended the interregnum of the past seven weeks, but it is unlikely to end the political instability created by the ambiguous election results in September. On paper, a coalition of the Free Democrats and the Christian Democrats should command about three hundred votes in the Bundestag. In fact, Dr Adenauer’s vote was only 259 – a bare nine votes above the minimum necessary to elect. It seems fairly clear that many Free Democrats in the Bundestag must have refused to vote for Dr Adenauer, in implicit defiance of their own party leader. The outcome, whatever one may think of Dr Adenauer and Dr Mende as individuals, could scarcely be more unfortunate for Germany or for the western alliance.
A weak government in Western Germany is a potential danger to her allies as well as to herself. The most obvious form which this danger may take is a continuation of the bickering and intriguing which delayed the formation of the new government for so long. “England,” Disraeli once said, “does not love coalitions.” In fact, no country loves them. Ministers in a coalition government frequently have to spend more energy in defending themselves from ambitious rivals than in administering their departments. When the partners to the coalition disagree on policy and are not united by personal loyalty to their chief, these consequences are apt to be intensified. However, responsible opinion in West Germany is clearly anxious that Bonn should not repeat the experience of Weimar.
A more serious danger is that the new government may be unwilling to make any constructive moves in foreign policy for fear of endangering its uncertain hold on the Bundestag. It is true that the resignation of Herr von Brentano has been interpreted in some quarters as a sign that the blank rigidity of the Adenauer era will soon be over. Unfortunately, however, it is by no means clear that the Free Democrats (or for that matter the Social Democrat opposition) are more flexible in their approach to negotiations with the Soviet Union than the CDU.
