BY AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF 501 TO 24 VOTES, WEST GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER FRANZ JOSEF STRAUSS WAS TODAY (SATURDAY) RE-ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF THE CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNION, THE AUTONOMOUS BAVARIAN BRANCH OF THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HERR STRAUSS, WHO WAS FIRST ELECTED CSU CHAIRMAN IN 1961, WAS PROPOSED FOR RE-ELECTION BY BAVARIAN PRIME MINISTER ALFONSO GOPPEL. IN HIS VICTORY SPEECH HERR STRAUSS CRITICISED THE "CRASS NATIONALISM" OF FRANCE, ENGLAND AND GERMANY IN USING THE RECENT INTERNATIONAL MONETARY CRISIS TO "FALL BACK INTO OLD, BLIND, HOSTILITY."
BAVARIAN ARE EXTREMELY FIRM AND PROUD OF THEIR AUTONOMOUS STATUS. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN APPOINTIVE UPPER HOUSE IN THE STATE PARLIAMENT; THEIR OWN CONSTITUTION, DRAWN UP BY THE AMERICANS AT THE END OF THE WORLD WAR II; AND THEIR OWN NATIONAL ANTHEM. IT IS THIS BAVARIAN NATIONALISM WHICH HERR FRANZ JOSEF STRAUSS SUPPORTS - AND WHICH SUPPORTS HIM AT THE TIME OF ELECTION. IN HIS 2-HOUR VICTORY SPEECH, HERR STRAUSS DID NOT MINCE WORDS IN REFERRING TO THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CONFERENCE AT BONN LAST MONTH: "THE FRIGHTENING THING ABOUT THIS CONFERENCE WAS NOT THAT, FOR A TIME, SPARKS FLEW BETWEEN GOVERNMENTS, BUT THAT MANY NARROW-MINDED PEOPLE IN ENGLAND, FRANCE AND GERMANY SEIZED THE OPPORTUNITY TO FALL BACK INTO OLD, BLIND HOSTILITIES."
AFTER CALLING FOR UNITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE, HERR STRAUSS SAID THAT WEST GERMANY WAS NOT ONLY THE SCAPEGOAT OF COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA BUT HAD FOR A LONG TIME BEEN THE TARGET OF CALCULATED POLITICAL PRESSURE: "WITH GREAT CARE A POLITICAL BASIS OF INTERVENTION IS BEING BUILT UP". HE CONTINUED TO COMMENT ON EVENTS FOLLOWING THE WARSAW PACT INTERVENTION IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA: "KREMLIN COMMUNISM IS NEITHER FIR NOR READY FOR REAL CO-EXISTENCE."