GERMANY: HELMUT KOHL CONFIRMED AS CHANCELLOR

Описание: (15 Nov 1994) German/Eng/Nat

The German parliament has confirmed Helmut Kohl as Chancellor for another four years, but by a narrow margin.

The veteran politician scraped through with 338 votes - just one more than he needed.

The vote reflects the results of the federal elections in October. Opposition leaders are predicting that the coalition will not survive another four year term.

The atmosphere was tense in the Bundestag, Germany's lower house, as parliamentarians cast their votes.

Even in the closing stages. Kohl was nervous that dissidents within tree he coalition would vote against him.

With the margin of support so narrow, two seriously ill legislators from Kohl's Christian Democrats left their sickbeds to cast ballots.

But Klaus Kinkel of Mr Kohl's coalition partners, the F-D-P, Free Democratic Party, was confident from the beginning which way the vote would go.

SOUNDBITE: 0.7":
"The whole FDP party will vote for Chancellor Kohl. You can count on it."

SUPER CAPTION: Klaus Kinkel, F-D-P, Free Democratic Party.

Three legislator's from Kohl's coalition voted against him, but it wasn't enough to defeat him.

SOUNDBITE:
"Of course, there is always a certain amount of uncertainty. I didn't expect with all of the votes, except for those from the coalition. I expected the result. And I was sure of myself."

SUPER CAPTION: Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany.

SOUNDBITE: 0.25"

"As you have seen, it's a very small majority. It will be difficult to govern in the next four years. The biggest and most important difficult will be that this small majority is unable to solve the main problems we have in this country: unemployment, social injustice, protection of the environment."

SUPER CAPTION: Rudolf Scharping, SPD, The Liberal Democrats.

SOUNDBITE: 0.04"

"As I have said, in the first run, Helmut Kohl our first Chancellor."
SUPER CAPTION: Peter Hintze, CSU, Christian Social Union.

Later in the day, Kohl was sworn in for a fourth term.

Despite doubts raised by the opposition that his coalition will not last the course, Kohl says the small margin had not dimmed his determination to pursue his goals of strengthening German and European unity.

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