'Chancellor of war' faces tide of dissent
The tide of German opinion is shifting rapidly against the Nato war in Yugoslavia. Popular opponents have found a voice in the form of Oskar Lafontaine, the former Finance Minister, who at the weekend relaunched his political career with a scathing attack on the Nato campaign.
"We are stuck in a dead-end street," Herr Lafontaine told a May Day rally. "More and more innocent people are becoming victims of this bombing. I urge those responsible to work towards ending the bombing, to return to the negotiating table." Before the speech, Herr Lafontaine was urged by nervous Social Democratic colleagues to curb any direct attack on Gerhard Schrvder, the Chancellor. Yet the target was clear; Herr Lafontaine, former Social Democratic chairman, is convinced that he can feel the pulse of his party better than anyone.
"Oskar," said a friend of the difficult, often edgy Saarlander, "regards it as his duty to alert the Chancellor to the public discontent about the war." Herr Lafontaine could well be reading the mood correctly. The May Day rallies were one useful pointer. Rudolf Scharping, Defence Minister, hailed by the media, was greeted with chants of "Killer, killer". At the Lafontaine rally, somebody hoisted a placard showing Herr Schrvder as Adolf Hitler. A section of the crowd shouted abuse at the "war Chancellor". Every trade union speaker at the weekend urged Nato to stop the bombing. In eastern Germany - where opposition is strongest - the Social Democratic prime minster of Brandenburg, Manfred Stolpe, won loud applause when he shouted: "Put an end to this bombardment." Even the Green Environment Minister, far from happy with German involvement in the war, was pelted with eggs. These protests were more than just ritualised left-wing grumbling. The Government is a Social Democrat-Green coalition. The demonstrators make up the Government's basic constituency. Their demands go beyond stopping the war. They want a commitment that Germany will not put itself on a collision course with Russia, and guarantees that Germany will not be flooded by refugees.
Growing legions of German critics accept the Serb propaganda that Kosovans are fleeing Nato bombs rather than ethnic cleansers. The Forsa Opinion Poll Institute shows 52 per cent now favour an immediate unilateral interruption of the Nato campaign. "The consensus machine is beginning to break down," says Ernst-Otto Czempiel, politics professor.
Modern German politicians have no experience of sustaining support for a long war. They have already deployed the familiar techniques to mobilise public opinion - pictures of massacres, accusations of Serb concentration camps - and are quick to remind Germans that their post-Holocaust moral obligation is to act against injustice rather than stand aside. But these devices are no longer working. Germans have stopped believing in a meaningful victory on the battlefield. They are looking for a speedy diplomatic face-saver. The release of three US soldiers appeared to open the way for some new thinking about postwar political and economic reconstruction of the Balkans - a campaign, they believe, that can be won. Germany is on the margins of the military offensive. In the postwar climate, it can take the lead with America on a Marshall-style aid package, financial support for democratic governments and backing for a European Union-backed stabilisation plan. Germany does not have the patience to wait for a natural military turning point: it wants reconstruction now. This tension between fidelity to the Alliance's military and political aims and erosion of domestic support for military action make Bonn look like a mansion with dry rot. The Government has reached its psychological limit; it could not take part in a ground-troop offensive or even a policing action. Nor would Germans willingly agree to an escalation of airstrikes.