European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Than drink it irom his own cows. Wilh inc average Price Lor Coal covering Only 53 percent of production costs supplies Lor the approaching Winter Are Down dramatically Lor Lack of government subsidies the state news Agency Pap warns other state industries can t pay Lor their Coal outmoded inefficient factories should be closed but they employ huge work forces making up much of Solidarity s membership and the critical housing shortage makes it Dill cult Lor displaced workers to move to new jobs the wait Lor a minuscule Warsaw apartment is a decade or More but this year forecasters expect to Complete 30.000 housing units less than planned nationwide typical is a 20-year-old High Rise apartment House on Dolna Street in Warsaw which has nol had hot water Lor seven of the past 1 months due to shoddy construction and Lack of spare parts five older neighbouring buildings Are not equipped Lor hot water at All Aboul 20 percent of University students emigrate. Gazela Wyborn a says doctors frequently prescribe medicines not available at pharmacies relying on patients to secure them in Iho West Hospital slays require a Supply of Gills to Iho Scalf to secure everything irom clean sheets to aesthetics physicians and nurses Are among the most underpaid of poles a remnant of the glorification of the labourer and Are allowed Pavale patients Only alter hours at government clinics a dual currency system has developed with the Dollar used or most meaningful transactions. Coffee Orange juice. Scotch televisions and apartments generally Are available Only Lor dollars harder to quantify but widely Iclet. Is a decline in the Pride of Craft As workers become demoralized. The Challenge is partly psychological. Mazowiecki says the most difficult ask is to make people icel Hal in can be belter although it cannot be boiler he said on aug i. The outgoing government look the first Radical step lilting controls on almost All prices although Price increases of several Hundred percent followed economists Hope supplies will improve but a consensus is forming thai even More painful and Radical reforms Are needed not Iho measly Lillic part that will gel the car running said a Middle aged Man Iron Dresden who asked not Lobo identified because to feared reprisal. Food stores unlike those in neighbouring Poland Are generally Well locked Bui there Are often shortages of Iresh Ruil vegetables and specially foods you go Down to the beverage shop in the morning and the Only thing they have is bottled water said a 30 year old Leipzig resident. When the shipment of Beer soda and soil drinks arrives late in the afternoon there s a line of 30 people and one clerk to wait on everyone " the government tolerates Small private enterprises mostly in the service sector but they Are sparse Small n and heavily regulated ii can take weeks to gel a reservation Al popular private restaurants in Leipzig Dresden and East Berlin. .4, although a Well placed wad of convertible hard currency speeds the process considerably. Free Day care and social programs make life easier Lor working parents but Many East germans say such programs Are not enough to make Lile tolerable. E pollution is a major problem since the International Oil crisis in inc Early 1970s, East Germany has switched almost exclusively to High Sulphur Brown Coal to lire its Power plants and to heal apartment buildings the emissions exacerbated by Clouds of thick Blue diesel Lumes from buses and trucks Sling the eyes and coat buildings and clothes with a Greasy sooty film East Germany s huge arming combines dump ions of insecticides and animal Ler tillers into the nation s Rivers Many of which flow into neighbouring West Germany. But Lor most East germans. Iho inability to travel sircely to Iho West remains the major cause of anger and Nissan Slation. A lot of East germans would come Backil they were allowed to travel freely and things improved Here said a 30-year-old East Berlin chemist almost everyone has a Leeling for where they grow up. But Hal slips away quickly when you realize thai the Only Way this government can stay in Power is lout Cage people West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl during visit by Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez. Kohl s problem despite Prosperity voters balk by Carol j. Williams associated press he West German Economy is booming. Bonn s relations Wilh both East and West Are secure and promising unemployment is declining and living standards Are climbing Over higher. So Why one might ask. Is Chancellor Helmut Kohl in political trouble it s like what happened to Winston Churchill Aller the War observed Volker Ruche. The general Secretary of Kohl s conservative Christian democratic Union. People thought they did t need him alter inc Victory we have won economic stability and now people feel they Don to need Wool Germany is the world s lop exporting nation and its Gross National product is the envy o most developed nations yet voters arc showing Broad dissatisfaction with the government that has been in Power for the past seven years Kohl s popularity among the electorate is at an All Lime Low and his parly enjoys neither majority support nor a secure Alliance Wilh its two coalition partners the right Wing Christian social Union and the centrist free democratic party Tho Chancellor s standing has Boon on Iho skids Lor two years Public resistance to reforms of Iho Federal tax and social Security systems that have shifted some new costs to corporations and Consumers a Cabinet shakeup in april in which the defense minister was fired and seven other top officials swapped portfolios was seen As Kohl s act of desperation to win Back votes. The new finance minister s first official action was to repeal a widely criticized withholding tax on capital gains. Tho 59-Yoar-old Chancellor emerged irom his own party s National convention which wound up sop 13 in Bremen lacking oven unified backing in the Campaign or National elections in december 1990. Running unopposed for the cd chairmanship and the parly s nominee As Chancellor Kohl Drew Only 77 percent yes votes irom the delegates reflecting their discord Over recent party election setbacks and a squabble Over who should manage cd affairs. Public opinion polls currently protect that Kohl s party would draw about 38 percent of the National Vole if Iho elections wore held today and that the opposition social democrats would get about the same share. Kohl s Tumble in popularity comes during what economists consider the second wave of the Wirschal Tsunder the economic Miracle Hal listed postwar Germany irom soldering ruins with Lew financial worries and one of the world s Cus Hiesl social soc Rily nets. West germans devote themselves to politics of Iho Aff Lucyl environmental Protection family support and aiding the thousands of ethnic germans irom Eastern Europe streaming into the West those issues have been elevated to map confrontations Between liberals who favor a broader sharing of the National Prosperity and conservatives who feel others Are Loo easily allowed to dip their hands into inc Federal till. In Iho Wake of criticism that conservatives Are sometimes reluctant to assimilate refugees into the thriving society the cd allowed the Issue to dominate its three Day convention. There were rousing speeches about the need to show Christian Charity and resolutions promising cd support or settling the newcomers. Ruche. The new cd manager said Kohl s government is not getting Iho credit in deserves Lor Good policies and economic health. But we can l just complain about the ingratitude and the unfairness of it Ruche said. To have to show people that Hoy need us o keep the successes going " Dos pile Kohl s negative poll results and a widespread perception that he is politically meal. No one is saying Kohl can l win a third term As Chancellor. Nothing is More successful than Success the Rhei Schor Merkur newspaper wrote in an editorial lamenting Kohl s Union Teslow nomination. This is Kohl s most important asset. Unfortunately it looks As if in might to his Only ii West germans were asked whether they Are better Oil now than before the last election most would answer with a resounding yes " out Prosperity May not be the deciding Factor for voters in the lengthy sunup to a Federal election. Germans Don t tie their leaders to their personal Well being As closely As americans do a foreign Diplomat at the Bremen convention observed privately. They manage to feel angst even in the Bestol mber24,1989 the stars and stripes Page 15
