President Johnson
Atlas Star
Posts: 29,568
Political Matrix
E: -3.23, S: -4.70
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« on: May 11, 2024, 01:50:54 PM » |
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While Brandt was a good politician and chancellor, I always felt that he's kind of overrated. In my view Helmut Schmidt was a more effective leader with a more pragmatic style of governing. It's unfortunate he was never party leader during his chancellorship, but it served a purpose to keep Brandt in that position until 1987 (even outlasting Schmidt's chancellorship) as he was more left-leaning than his successor. However, Brandt's stances later on hurt Schmidt with the party's left wing, which - unlike Schmidt - opposed the NATO Double Track decision. Ultimately that contributed to the break-up of the Social-Liberal coalition that ended 13 years of SPD reign. Subsequently, Helmut Kohl became chancellor and stayed in office for 16 years.
A fun fact with regard to Brandt's resignation is that this was thee only time a chancellor requested to be immediately relieved of his duties and not continue in an acting capacity. Therefore, Vice Chancellor Walter Scheel of the FDP formally served as acting chancellor between May 7 and May 16, 1974, when Schmidt was elected (Scheel became federal president later that year).
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