> >The Times
> >May 4 1999
> >
> >Roger Boyes Inside Germany
> >
> >'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.
> >
> >----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Dan Ciric
> >DC Communications Centre
> >E-mail: dciric at yesic.com
> > ciricd at hotmail.com
> >Web: http://come.to/ciric
> >----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
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