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German leaders clash in parliament |
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September 30, 2000
BERLIN, (AP) - German leaders squabbled Friday about who made mistakes during and after the rush to reunification, turning parliament into a stage for partisan finger-pointing just days before the nation marks 10 years of unity. Opposition conservatives renewed attacks on Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other Social Democrats, then in the opposition, for arguing against quick unification after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 in the wake of pro-democracy protests in East Germany. Grinning in the back benches was Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who united Germany in 1990 but has seen his reputation tarnished by a party financing scandal. Kohl, who recently reappeared in parliament after months of self-imposed isolation, did not speak Friday. But Angela Merkel, head of the Christian Democratic party that Kohl led for 25 years, paid tribute to her former boss in a combative speech repeatedly interrupted by catcalls from the government side. "You had a clear compass," she declared. "You did not hesitate." Addressing Schroeder from the podium in the Reichstag building, she challenged him to admit that he had been too worried about the economic burden of merging the communist east with West Germany to welcome unification. "I expect you to say: Yes, I misjudged the situation in 1990," Merkel shouted. Schroeder did not reply. In his own speech opening the session, Schroeder deplored the political backbiting that has accompanied the weeks leading up to Tuesday's national Unity Day celebration. But he also attacked Kohl's government for leaving him to tackle a backlog of unfinished economic reforms for united Germany when he took power in 1998. He promised continued aid to economically struggling eastern Germany and underlined his goal of helping East European nations join the European Union. Reinhard Hoeppner, the Social Democratic governor of Saxony-Anhalt state, rushed to his party's defense, recalling during the debate that Kohl also had moments of hesitation about the east-west merger as East Germany crumbled. "There was no single architect of unification," he said. |